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OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 


THE BrsiicaL SaBBaTH 

THE Lorp’s SupprreR 

A CovENANT-KEEpiIna Gop 

A TRIBUTE To THE TRIUMPHANT 


THE SINLESS 
INCARNATION 


bos Raa aha lt RCI . 
REL RTE MNT LT TE 
FRANCIS WESLEY WARNE 


One of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church 


The Methodist Book Concern 


New York Cincinnati 


Copyright, 1926, by 
FRANCIS W. WARNE 


All rights reserved, including that of translation into 
foreign languages, including the Scandinavian 


The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American 
Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas 
Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. 


Printed in the United States of America 


DEDICATION 


DeEpIcaATEp to the thousands of our Indian 
ministers and workers, who on very small 
salaries are facing opposition, persecution, 
and a religion hoary with centuries when 
Paul preached on Mars’ Hill, a religion 
more powerful, philosophical and with a 
genius for absorbing other religions greater 
than any religion faced even by the 
apostles. The false religions Paul faced 
are dead centuries ago, but Hinduism is 
alive and guiding the religious destiny of 
two hundred and twenty million people. 
One of the greatest stories of missionary 
heroism is yet to be written, setting forth 
the sacrifices, courage, faith, and victories 
of our Indian ministers. . 


pe 


sf eh st 


i zp rh 


CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION—WHY PUBLISHED IN 
PETTY 3707 WPL Rt OM MEERA ANS SOM. Bory OA 9 
INCARNATIONS IN HINDUISM............ 17 
He “Emptrep HImwseLr”’ .............. 29 
Tue ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT.......... 35 
From MANGER TO BETRAYAL .......... 46 

GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY — OBEDIENT 
UNTO BATH (OOS Se Ne 56 
CON TOROSSY fie a toe cne ic se cus ciena tne yaaa att 68 
From BurIAL TO ASCENSION .......... 79 
“Toat Ye Micutr Be Ricw”’ .......... 85 
A PERSONAL TESTIMONY..............- 90 


INTRODUCTION—WHY PUBLISHED IN 
AMERICA? 


To interest a boy in an automobile you would 
not first show him only some piece of the machinery, 
but the automobile as a whole in action. Then 
when he knows the powers and wonders of the auto 
_he will the more easily be induced to study with 
interest its individual parts. On this principle 
about ten years ago I wrote a little book for India, 
with the purpose in mind that a non-Christian in 
an hour or so of reading would get a full-length por- 
trait of the Christians’ Christ. I have called it 
THE SINLESS INCARNATION. 

Recently an edition of about 50,000 in the Hindi 
language was exhausted, and I decided before the 
publication of the new edition to revise the manu- 
script. Together with this came the thought, “Why 
not make a duplicate copy and offer it to American 
readers?” For reasons such as follow, I finally, 
though hesitatingly, decided to do so: 

First among the reasons was a hope that it may 
give the supporters of missions a clearer idea of 
how the missionaries present their message to the 
non-Christian world and reveal the adaptability of 
the gospel message to the conditions of the Christ- 
less nations. 

Then I thought if home readers could and would 
forget for the time their knowledge of the Bible and 


read this outline story of the incarnation as news, 
9 


10 INTRODUCTION 


as it is to India’s millions, it would give the gospel 
story a fresh interest even to them. 

Hinduism among the unlettered masses has been 
perpetuated through the centuries by those who 
have learned orally and can tell the stories of their 
gods. Many of our missionaries and Indian minis- 
ters give much of their time to telling gospel stories 
to our workers and teaching them how to tell the un- 
lettered villagers these stories, and how to retell 
them. Each story falls naturally into its proper 
relation to the life of Christ as a whole, after his 
life has been seen in the whole as we try to present 
it in this little book. 

I said one day to one of our W. F. M. S. mission- 
aries, our greatest enthusiast for story-telling, “Do 
you not think you are making a mistake in giving 
less time to preaching and more to story-telling?” 
She answered, without a moment’s hesitation, “No, 
for the gospel stories will yet supplant the stories 
of the Hindu gods and become the folklore of the 
villages of India, where ninety per cent of India’s 
millions live.” To help those who support missions 
to see this in its real setting, I will give some exam- 
ples of its working. 

I remember being at a chaudhri meeting, where 
over two hundred chaudhries, or village headmen, 
were present for several days, and representing 
about ten thousand Christians living in the villages 
where there were thousands of inquirers. These 
chaudhries were being taught in order the stories 
of Christ’s life. The day I was present they were 
being taught the story of the incarnation, and were 
so far on that in turns they were telling it to each 


INTRODUCTION (1 


other and being corrected and directed by the mis- 
sionary. They were telling it with many interesting 
Oriental touches on the outline of my chapter ‘The 
Angelic Announcement,” beginning with Gabriel’s 
announcement to Mary of the divine overshadowing 
and the divine conception. Then the story of the 
star, representing the heavenly bodies, the shepherds 
representing the laboring millions, the Wise Men 
representing the educated. Then as a climax the 
angelic hosts in heavenly song announcing glad tid- 
‘ings of great joy to all peoples, including themselves 
as untouchables with all the rest and just as good 
as the rest. 

As I sat and listened Christ was by these humble 
villagers lifted infinitely above all their old gods of 
wood and stone. They rejoiced, wept, shouted, and 
gave me a new conception of the story of the incar- 
nation. I began to think the missionary lady was 
right, they would supplant the old and become 
India’s folklore. I am writing this at the Christ- 
mas season, and missionaries who spent Christmas 
away out in a country village wrote: “Every house 
has been freshly cleaned and decorated for the oc- 
casion. All through the night from the little tent 
in the grove we can hear the sound of musical instru- 
ments and the songs of praise to the Babe of 
Bethlehem. One has a feeling that if all the mis- 
sionaries and paid workers were withdrawn, the 
knowledge of Christ would not die out.” This all 
happened in a village that had once been noted as 
a den of robbers. I preached from a platform only 
a few feet from a tree under which there was once 
an altar devoted to the worship of Kali, the goddess 


12 INTRODUCTION 


of blood. Then they had twenty-four babies bap- 
tized on the day of the birth of the Babe of Bethle- 
hem. Then out of their poverty they gave a collec- 
tion at their own request for the “Warne Bareilly 
Baby Fold.” Is this not Christianity taking hold 
of the villages of India? 

I remember being at an Epworth League Day 
in an Indian district superintendent’s district. No 
other missionary was present. The Christians had 
dramatized that matchless parable that turns the 
teaching of Hinduism topsy-turvy, in the Western 
world inaccurately called the prodigal son, but 
which will be renamed in India the “Parable of 
God’s Love.” They had made great preparation 
with Oriental colors, settings, and music. But when 
they came to the place where the elder brother re- 
turned, they were not satisfied to stop where the 
New Testament stops, but they went out, got hold 
of the elder brother, brought him in, got him down 
at the penitent bench, had him converted, and had 
a great family reunion and cleaned up the whole 
situation. This is the most popular of the para- 
bles. The feeding of the multitudes with the loaves 
and fishes in hungry India makes a good second. I 
remember being at a wedding in a church where 
there was a missionary boy, whose companions had 
been Indian Christian children. I saw him watch- 
ing with intense interest the church doors, his eyes 
blazing with excitement. Then he exclaimed after 
the bride and her five bridesmaids came in, “They 
have forgotten to close the doors to keep the foolish 
virgins out.” That is the way the gospel stories grip 
the imagination of India. 


INTRODUCTION 13 


But when they come to the story of the crucifixion 
it is wonderful. Here let me insert that when you 
come to read in the body of this little book, and 
particularly the chapter on “From Gethsemane to 
Calvary,” to the Western reader it will seem unduly 
drawn out, but please remember it was written to 
meet the Indian situation. For those who have no 
Christian background, to use a figure from photog- 
raphy, I made a longer exposure to secure a truer 
impression. Accept this in advance as my explana- 
‘tion and apology for so much realistic detail. 

I remember being again at an Indian district 
superintendent’s District Conference; no other mis- 
sionary was present. I preached one night out un- 
der the stars on the crucifixion, along the line you 
will find in this book. When I had finished the 
whole audience fell on their faces, wept and 
groaned, it seemed to me for twenty minutes. I 
had never witnessed just such a scene. Then sud- 
denly the Holy Spirit fell upon them and such re- 
joicing as followed could scarce have been at the 
original Pentecost. They composed hymns of praise 
as they sang. I remember one preacher sang a 
prophetic song, composed while he sang, foretelling 
the conversion of Tibet. Three or four fell on the 
ground and had the “jerks,” just as Peter Cart- 
wright describes as occurring in some of his camp 
meetings. It was indeed a wonderful night of vic- 
tory. 

Then how shall I describe their Oriental telling 
of the story of the resurrection, the forty days, the 
ascension, and Pentecost, and so on to the end. [| 
hope enough has been suggested to help our good 


14 INTRODUCTION 


people at home who support us to see the way we 
exalt Jesus and the message we use to reach the 
people. Please try and read it all from this angle, 
when you read my simple outline of the life of the 
Sinless One, the world’s Redeemer. 

Among earlier missionary writers of tracts and 
books to be read by non-Christians in India it was 
all too common to severely criticize and even ridi- 
cule the religious beliefs of India. 

The rebound criticism was to the effect that such 
literature judges Hinduism by the most objection- 
able things within it, and sets forth the best in 
Christianity in contrast with the worst in other 
religions. It must be confessed that wherever that 
was true such criticism was just. The thought of 
such authors was that such literature would destroy 
faith in other religions, but even granted destruction 
is of little value in the Christian cause. Total loss 
of faith in Hinduism does not make a Hindu a 
Christian. A Christian is made out of a Hindu only 
on the principle of “The expulsive power of a new 
affection.” That is when he sees “The Sinless In- 
carnation” so superior to those of Hinduism that 
Christ wins his heart. Hindus have so many Sys- | 
tems of philosophy in their own religion that they 
do not easily fall in love with Christian philosophy, 
but their warm hearts are won by the story of the 
loving, sympathetic, helpful, suffering Son of man 
and God, in his incarnation. 

It was with ideas like these in the background 
that Tum Sintuss Incarnation was written and sent 
out among the people of India. One often has sur- 
prises and here is one: In writing this book I had 


: INTRODUCTION 15 


chiefly Hindus in mind, and was pleasantly sur- 
prised to learn that the head Mohammedan Mulvi 
in a great Mohammedan state had Tum Sinuxss In- 
CARNATION in Persian Urdu, bound up with his 
Koran. He gave as his reason that it was the first 
presentation of the central truths of Christianity 
that he had found that did not make him angry be- 
cause of its attacks on Mohammedanism. For the 
same reason, because of no ridiculing of the Hindu 
religion, I have heard of orthodox Hindus dying 
with my story of the love of God and the eternal 
hope of the gospel under their pillows. 

My first chapter, “Incarnations in Hinduism,” is 
written wholly for home readers, and the book as 
published in India begins with Chapter IT. 


HAY? 


eae YK} 


CHAPTER I 
INCARNATIONS IN HINDUISM 


INCARNATIONS have a central place in Hinduism. 
An authoritative book called The Crown of Hindu- 
ism is so written that the author says, “This book 

is an attempt to discover and state as clearly as 
-possible what relationship subsists between Hindu- 
ism and Christianity.” It traces resemblances and 
contrasts between the two religions, and on the place 
of incarnation in Hinduism the author in a sum- 
mary says, “It is one of the most powerful forces 
working in Hinduism,” and adds: 


That the doctrine of incarnation, which appeared 
originally in the ancient Vishnuite sect, should have 
found its way into almost every division of the 
Hindu people, and into every corner of eastern Asia, 
is the strongest possible testimony to the religious 
value it possesses for the Hindu and the Asiatic 
spirit. Nor can there be any doubt as to what ele- 
ment in the doctrine it is that has given the move- 
ment its power; it is the belief that God actually 
appeared as a man, was born, and lived and died 
among men. This fact comes out quite clearly in 
the literature; but it becomes still more manifest in 
intercourse with the people. 


It will be of interest and full of instruction to 
trace why and how the doctrine of incarnation found 
such a large place in Hinduism and wherein the 


1J. N. Farquhar, The Crown of Hinduism. Oxford University Press. Used 
by permission. 
17 


18 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Hindu idea of incarnations differs from the Chris- 
tian. 


All these thinkers accept fully the Upanishad doc- 
trine that Brahman, being “beyond thought and 
speech,” can receive neither sacrifice nor prayer. 
: . Thus, it is one of the highest principles of 
‘Hindu theology that the Supreme receives no sacri- 
fice and hears no prayer. Unless this principle be 
firmly grasped, the development of Hindu theology 
will remain incomprehensible. 


This doctrine concerning God as being directly 
unapproachable brought into Hindu thought the 
absolute necessity of incarnations. The question 
which pressed upon their religious leaders was this: 
If the Supreme Spirit receives no offering, and 
answers no prayer, what is the use of religion? But 
since perhaps more among Indians than among any 
other people the truth is lived out that the instinct 
for the living God is undoubtedly the deepest and 
most consistent of all our religious instincts and 
faculties, so in India some way had to be found to 
reach the Great Spirit. In connection with this an- 
other truth impresses one, which is, the insistent 
desire and longing of the human heart for God in 
human form manifest in the flesh. It took the 
leaders of Indian thought long to reach that high 
ideal. 

Among their earliest conceptions was that God 
became incarnate in animals, hence the worship of 
the monkey, the hooded snake, the ever sacred cow. 
But as time went on God in human form was 
craved and in that development we see their idols, 
part man and part animal. So we have all over 


NN 


INCARNATIONS IN HINDUISM 19 


India the human body blended with the animal in 
the man-fish, the man-tortoise, the man-boar, the 
man-lion, the man-horse, and the man-elephant. Then 
as the conceptions of God became more noble the 
mixed image did not satisfy, so we find added wings, 
several heads, in the case of the snake a thousand 
heads—the emblem of eternity. Some idols have 
many arms and eyes. Next came the idea of sex, 
thought of as life-giving energy, and the gods began 
to have their wives. But all this approach to God 
in human form does not satisfy permanently, so we 
have Krishna, god in human form, growing up 
among the people, and he is the most popular of all 
the incarnations of India. 

To at all understand the tremendous hold of 
idolatry in India one must remember that to many 
of the people every idol is in a very real sense an 
incarnation. Many, but not all, Hindus think of 
each idol as a living personal god. The image has 
been made by human hands, they admit, but after its 
dedication by the priests the god lives in it, using 
the stone, wood, or metal body as the human soul 
uses the human body. The god lives in the temple 
among his people, receives at their hands the food 
upon which he subsists, welcomes them to his pres- 
ence, and makes them his guests. He listens to their 
prayers and they believe he answers them. The 
whole of the temple worship depends upon this be- 
lief, that the Supreme Spirit has poured his pres- 
ence into every image of himself, and with thirty 
million such idol incarnations there is no difficulty 
about opportunity to worship. 

Why give another religion to a people whose 


20 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


most distinguishing characteristic is their religious 


consciousness? This is a legitimate question. We 
answer: Because this great misdirected religious 
consciousness forms a basis of our hope for the high- 
est type of spirituality in India’s Christian future. 
Missionary work in India is well defined by the 
teaching presented by Paul on Mars’ Hill to an- 
other misdirected, intensely religious people, “Whom 
therefore you ignorantly worship him declare I 
unto you.” 

Amid all the discouragement in India, such as the 
smallness of the Christian community as compared 
to the hundreds of millions of Hindus, does not one’s 
heart stir with hope as he listens to one of India’s 
sons tell how even the greatest of idolatrous temples 
falls and perishes: 


In the dark background of antiquity one of the 
most lustrous gems is the temple of Diana in Ephe- 
sus. The ambition and enterprise of antiquity ex- 
hausted itself in the temple of Diana in Ephesus. 
Wondrous building. It took two hundred and 
twenty years to complete. It was built of finest 
marble and gold and timbered with cedar and cy- 
press... . It was so dazzling and beautiful that the 
doorkeeper constantly cried to them who entered, 
“Take heed to your eyes, take heed to your eyes.” 
Here is the utmost of man’s resources! That gor- 
geous structure long ago kissed the dust in which it 
molders. . . . Fitting picture of human glory; its 
cradle, dust; its mausoleum, ashes! The same will 
happen in India. 


Contrasting a philosophical, mythical, humanly 
thought-out religion of India with the revelation in 
the Christian Bible, missionaries come to value much 


INCARNATIONS IN HINDUISM 21 


more highly their revelation, and become on the 
Indian mission field much more enthusiastic about 
giving Christ’s gospel to a most lovable, warm- 
hearted, religiously inclined people. To better feel 
the force of this look on some of the contrasts be- 
tween Hinduism and Christianity. 

First, the Supreme Spirit in Hinduism received 
neither worship nor prayers, is above morality and 
is not under any moral obligation. If Hindus were 
to admit under their theory of karma that their gods 
_ Were not above morality, then they would have to 
come under the law of karma in which every act 
works itself out in retribution in another birth. If 
they admitted that their gods were not above moral 
acts, that would put them on the “wheel” where new 
acts form new karma, which must be expiated in 
another existence, so that as soon as the clock runs 
down it winds itself up again. Such an admission 
would bring their gods even into the caste system, 
the core of which is that “each person is born in 
that caste for which his former actions have pre- 
pared him.” To avoid all this they conceive of their 
gods as “above morality and that they may do deeds 
which man must neither copy nor condemn.” When 
we realize that to the Hindu mind God is not neces- 
sarily moral we begin to understand why in a reli- 
gious system in which spirit only is real and matter 
an illusion the system should express itself in such 
debasing practices as are prevalent in many things 
found in India. 

This great philosophical, mythical, man-made reli- 
gion has led religious India into the doctrinal con- 
fusion indicated in the following: 


22 THE SINLESS INCARNATION’ 


Here, then, we have the Hindu world-theory in all 
its permanent essentials: God real, the world worth- 
less; the God unknowable, the other gods not to be 
despised; the Brahmans with their Vedas the sole 
religious authority; the caste a divine institution, 
serving as the chief instrument of reward and pun- 
ishment; man doomed to repeated birth and death, 
because all action leads to rebirth; the world-flight 
the only noble course for awakened man and the 
one hope of escape from the entanglements of sense 
and transmigration. 


All this doctrinal confusion in the practical life 
of religious India has produced idolatry, with its 
thirty million idols; castes numbering thousands, in 
every instance forbidding social intercourse or inter- 
marriage; child marriage and enforced widowhood, 
leaving many million suffering as child widows; and 
over fifty million human beings created in the 
image of God in the name of religion are branded 
as untouchable. 

Now we are prepared to have some appreciation 
of what the gospel of the incarnation brings to such 
a religiously minded people thus mistaught. First, 
it reveals God as a living, active, loving Father. 
This at once solves the age-old problem of Hinduism 
connected with God being above morality and be- 
yond thought and speech. These ideas about God in 
Hinduism gave birth to the Hindu idea that God’s 
only action is sport, and that he in sport created a 
world of illusion. Who can estimate all the sorrow 
that through centuries has followed in the train of 
that conception of the Supreme Spirit? 

Imagine the missionary among common people 
with such ideas about God telling the full story of 


INCARNATIONS IN HINDUISM 23 


the sinless incarnation, the “Gift of God’s love,” and 
then telling them that Jesus taught, “After this 
manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in 
heaven’; telling of “The high and lofty One who 
inhabits eternity, whose name is holy,” then inter- 
preting the nature of God in Christ’s own words, in 
language they can comprehend: “If ye then, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your Father who is in heaven 
give good things to them that ask him?” J know 
not how better to let those who have never been in 
India in the midst of such conditions understand 
the joy of such a message than to give an incident 
right out of missionary life. It was told me by one 
of our Indian ministers working in the villages. He 
had a community that he was preparing for bap- 
tism. Among the things we teach them while being 
prepared for baptism is the Lord’s Prayer. This 
Indian preacher gathered his people together out 
under the stars in the balmy evening air of India, 
after the day’s work and the simple evening meal 
were over. 

He told me that in the company there was a sim- 
ple old woman who lived in one of the hundreds of 
thousands of Indian villages. She had never had 
any idea of God except what she had gained from 
the idolatrous teachings and practices all about her. 
She never had committed anything to memory, and 
the one thought of her life was to work enough hours 
to keep from starvation. The Indian preacher was 
teaching this group the Lord’s Prayer. This old 
woman had listened to the explanation and after 
much effort had committed to memory the first 


24. THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


clause, “Ai hamare Bap jo asman per hai” (Our 
Father which art in heaven). The Indian preacher 
noticed that she had learned well the Hindustani of 
“Our Father which art in heaven,” but also that as 
he went on to teach the rest of the Lord’s Prayer 
she took no interest. She would sit smiling in her 
poverty, her face beaming and looking heavenward. 
After a number of such experiences the preacher 
called the old woman forward and reprovingly said 
to her, “You have learned so well ‘Ai hamare Bap 
jo asman per hai, why don’t you go and learn 
the rest of the Lord’s Prayer?” 

The poor old woman, with a look of grieved sur- 
prise, and with her hands turned up expressing help- 
lessness, a characteristic Indian gesture, replied, 
“Kya zarurat hai?’ Which being interpreted means, 
“What is the necessity?” “What more does a poor 
old woman need?” That is, just that one phrase 
from the gospel of the Son of God, “Our Father 
which art in heaven,” falling into the heart of that 
poor old: village woman, completely changed her 
whole outlook on life, death, and eternity. It had 
satisfied all her soul’s longings. So out of an over- 
flowing heart her thought was: “What more do I 
need? A Father in heaven for a poor old village 
woman, a home in heaven where there will be no 
want, nor tears, nor pain, forever! What is the 
necessity of my learning more?” Time and eternity 
were all provided for in those seven Christ-given 
words, “Ai hamare Bap jo asman per hai.” 

If you want to understand the secret of the mis- 
sionary’s joy in India’s mass movement, let the idea 
of the comfort portrayed in this story apply to the 


INCARNATIONS IN HINDUISM 25 


hundreds of thousands of India’s mass-movement 
converts. 

To further understand the joyous message of the 
Sinless Incarnation to India’s millions recall the 
social evils of caste, and the customs named earlier 
that are the fruits of Hinduism. Then imagine the 
missionary telling the people that are suffering such 
things that the Sinless Incarnation was sent into 
the world not so much to give a system of doctrine 
as, in his own personal character, life, death, and 
resurrection as the Son, “Who is in the bosom of 
the Father,” to reveal the heart of God the Father 
to the world. Then to explain that in all his teach- 
ings, actions, and miracles Christ’s greatest purpose 
was to make all so clear that man could see and 
better understand the great loving heart of our 
Father in heaven. To make all this more clear to 
India’s heart imagine your missionaries picturing 
Jesus taking little outcaste children into his arms, 
touching the untouchable leper and making him 
whole, dining with the outcaste publicans and sin- 
ners, feeding the hungry, opening blind eyes, heal- 
ing the sick, giving reason to the lunatic, weeping 
at the grave of his friend Lazarus, and raising him 
from the dead and thus giving an assurance 
of the resurrection, weeping oyer Jerusalem, shed- 
ing great drops of blood, forgiving those who nailed 
him to the cross, forgiving the thief beside him on 
the cross and promising him, “This day thou shalt 
be with me in paradise.” Hear him telling the story 
of the resurrection, the forty days with their mar- 
velous lessons, the ascension, reigning in glory, and 
the coming again to receive his people unto himself, 


26 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


that where he is they may be with him forever. 
What more need I say? Could there be a greater 
contrast? Could a loving Father-God do more to 
win the burning heart of India? Oh, the joy of tell- 
ing India that God is Christ-like! 

To still further see the need of giving Christ to 
India one has but to think on the great changes 
now going on in India. One, the sense and value 
of history, has laid hold of the cultured of mythical 
India, and this has led them to study Hinduism 
frankly and openly. Many now frankly admit that 
the incarnations of Hinduism are mythical, un- 
real, and that the incarnation of Jesus Christ is 
historical, real, and this has proved very potent in 
awakening the Hindu mind. Many others simply 
avoid the subject. , 

Here are some of the questions now before 
thoughtful India: If the incarnations of Hinduism 
are all mythical and unreal, what are we to do? Is 
not to give it all up to confess that the Hindu mind 
not only mistook myth for history but that it has 
also been wholly mistaken in one of its chief and 
deepest religious intuitions? Then follows another 
question: If we cannot trust our religious instincts 
in a matter so vital as this, what can we trust? 
They are finding as their only way out, to admit 
that, while they were mistaken in taking myths for 
history, they were yet entirely correct in be- 
lieving in incarnation, and in looking for God mani- 
fest in the flesh. Multitudes of educated Indians 
are now coming to see that the Sinless Incarnation — 
of the gospel meets all the needs of their deepest 
spiritual instincts and longings and solves their 


INCARNATIONS IN HINDUISM 27 


theological problems. They are coming to believe 


that Jesus came not to destroy but to fulfill, and 
that he indeed crowns Hinduism. 

Think on this: The West through many agencies 
is destroying the old faith of these religious people. 
Is it not therefore her duty and responsibility to 


use all possible effort to give them the Christian 
doctrine of the incarnation, to take the place of 


what they are losing? It was to make a small con- 
tribution toward meeting that need and discharging 
that obligation that Tum Sinuuss INCARNATION was 
- written. 


SUGGESTION FOR RBADING FURTHER 


What has been written in this chapter is not 


— included in THE Sinuess INCARNATION as it has gone 


forth by the hundred thousand and is still going in 
India in a number of vernaculars. This chapter has 
been written as an introduction entirely for home 
readers to help give them an insight into the prom- 


_ inent belief in incarnations in Indian religious think- 


ing and to set forth one of the ways the mission- 
aries are trying to meet India’s spiritual needs. 
Another purpose in writing this introductory chap- 
ter is to help prepare the home reader to understand 
the mental attitude of those for whom THE SINLESs 
INCARNATION was really written. 

Therefore in reading the rest of this book try to 
imagine either that you had never before read or 
heard anything about Jesus Christ, or that what 
you had read or heard was criticizing him and mak- 
ing him: out to be an impostor, or that you are a 
new convert just out of another religion, knowing 


28 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


but little about Jesus and needing to have your 
faith strengthened and your heart warmed. The 
story as told in the coming chapters is so Simple 
and follows so closely the New Testament historical 
outline that if you can read it in the state of mind 
I have suggested, so that it may have the fresh- 
ness of news, as it has for the people of India, I 
trust it will help to a better understanding of our 
work. As you read further, with the few suggestive 
comments added here and there for our Indian 
readers, keep this in mind: Suppose I had either 
never known anything about J esus, or what little I 
had known had prejudiced me against him, or if I 
were a new convert, would the reading of this little 
book help me to love him, and trust in him, as a 
true Incarnation and as my personal Saviour? 


CHAPTER II 
HE “EMPTIED HIMSELF” 


I wave called Christ’s advent into the world 
“The Sinless Incarnation,” not only because of his 
sinlessness, but also because before his birth the 
angel of the Lord had said, “Thou shalt call his 
name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people 
from their sins.’”! Further, as the story of the life 
of Jesus will show, he was tempted as we are 
tempted, yet never either sins, repents, or makes 
confession of having sinned. In this he lives above 
the greatest of men and shows himself to be in 
truth the Sinless Incarnation. 

I am not going to argue nor offer proof, but will 
just invite the reader, as a guest, to partake of a 
feast of love already spread. I shall say nothing 
about or against the sacred books of other religions, 
but shall tell the story of the Lord Jesus, the Sin- 
less One, as found in our sacred books, with the 
hope that it may help those who know the sacred 
books of other religions to make comparisons and 
to choose the best, and also to help Christian con- 
verts to have more love for the Lord Jesus. 

I recently left Vancouver, British Columbia, in a 
great ship for India. That ship plowed through the 
mighty ocean at the rate of sixteen miles an hour 
day and night; yet on it, and on other ships before 
reaching India, we were over twenty days and nights 


1Matt. 1. 21. 
29 


30 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


so completely surrounded by water that we could 


not see the land. As we passed over God’s greatest © 


ocean, thousands of miles wide, and miles deep, 
whose mighty waves have been washing the shores 


of three continents for unnumbered centuries, I felt 
utterly incompetent to comprehend the ocean’s great- | 


ness; nevertheless after crossing it, I had a clearer 


idea of the ocean than if I had not crossed. In like | 
manner a study of the Sinless Incarnation will take © 


us over infinite oceans of divine grace; and while 
I well know that no finite mind can fully compre- 
hend all, yet let us hope that even a journey over 
them will give us a more comprehensive conception 
of the boundless oceans of divine grace. 

To clear the way, at the very beginning, I wish 
to say that the teaching of some, that Christ died to 
cause God the Father to love sinners, is wholly con- 
tradictory to the teachings of the sacred book of 
the Christians. That book teaches that “God so 
loved the world” that “he gave,” “sent,” and “spared 
not” his “only begotten and dearly beloved Son,” 
and that the Son said: “I delight to do thy will, O 
God.” So, “grace” represents divine love in united 
action to save mankind. 

To Paul, who was a merciless persecutor of the 
early Christians, the Lord Jesus, after his ascension, 
made a special revelation of himself. Paul after 
that became not only a devout follower of the Lord 
Jesus but the most able interpreter of the teachings 
of the Lord Jesus who has ever lived. In the fol- 
lowing statement Paul outlines the story of the in- 
carnation of Jesus: 


“HE EMPTIED HIMSELF” 31 


“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he be- 
came poor, that ye through his poverty might be- 
come rich.’ 

Grace is the source of all that follows. What is 
grace? Grace is more than an attribute of God, for 
God is Love. Grace, therefore, is the love of God the 
Father, of the God-man Jesus, and of the Holy 
Spirit, united in a sacrificial offering to save “that 
which was lost.” 

Paul’s outline of God’s grace in the text quoted 
-gtates three great facts: 


Christ was rich. 
Christ becamé poor. 
“That ye through his poverty might become rich.” 


These three facts and in that order will be our 
chart over the oceans of grace. 

“Though he was rich.” I rejoice that no inspired 
writer has ever made any attempt to define how 
rich Jesus was. We have been given marvelous 
visions of God in the book of Isaiah and, also, in 
the book of Revelation; but no real attempt has, 
been made to define the riches of Christ before his 
incarnation. Let us leave that in a plain statement 
where the Bible leaves it: “In the beginning” the 
Lord Jesus was “with God” and “was God.” What 
_ more need be said on “He was rich’? 

_ “For your sakes he became poor.” Christ’s pov- 
erty can only be measured by estimating the riches 
he renounced. While the Bible makes no attempt to 
tell how rich Christ was, I shall put in the form of 
2Cor. 8. 9. 


32 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


seven steps downward, well called, Saint Paul’s de- 
scription of Christ’s voluntary humiliation. Here 
are the steps in Christ’s descent into poverty. 


Seven Sreps in Curist’s Humin1arion 
Christ’s Voluntary Humiliation 


1. Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, 
counted not the being on an equality with 
God a thing to be grasped. 

. But emptied himself. 

. Taking the form of a. servant. 

- Made in the likeness of man. 

. Becoming obedient. 

. Unto death. 

. Yea, the death of the cross. 


“1S OUR Co bo 


These seven steps will help us to see how Christ, 
in his incarnation, “for your sakes” descended from 
glory to Calvary, from equality with God to “even 
the death of the cross.” 

But before Paul named these steps he prefaced 
them by this exhortation for each reader: “Have 
this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” 
I pass on Paul’s exhortation. 


The First Step in Christ’s Humiliation 


“Who, existing in the form of God, counted not 
the being on an equality with God a thing to be 
grasped.” 'That is, in the first downward step the 
Lord Jesus took he voluntarily let go all the glory 
he had with God before the worlds were made. 
What a lesson there is in this for some weak Chris- 
tians in India who hang on to caste and even try 
to bring it into the Christian Church! Since the 


“HE EMPTIED HIMSELF” 30 


Lord Jesus Christ for others could, in his first down- 
ward step, cheerfully give up “being on an equality 
with God,” is it too much to ask from Indian Chris- 
tians that they once for all and forever abandon 
caste? Is it too much, in comparison with Christ’s 
divine humbling of himself, to ask a non-Christian 
who is planning to follow the Lord Jesus to abandon 
caste forever, in order to become his follower? May 
I here repeat Paul’s exhortation, “Have this mind 
{that is, the same kind of a humble spirit] in you 
which was also in Christ Jesus”? 


The Second Step in Christ’s Humiliation 


“He emptied himself.’ This was his second down- 
ward step in “for your sakes he became poor.” The- 
ologians through the centuries have not been able 
to perfectly agree on how much is included in “He 
emptied himself,” but for our practical purposes let 
us take the interpretation found in one of Charles 
Wesley’s immortal hymns: 

“He left his Father’s throne above, 
So free, so infinite his grace! 
Emptied himself of all but love, 
And bled for Adam’s helpless race; 
’Tis mercy all, immense and free, 
For, O my God, it found out me!” 


The Third Step in Christ’s Humiliation 


“Taking the form of a servant.” This describes 
the third downward step in “For your sakes he be- 
came poor.” He who had created all worlds, all 
life, became the servant of all. He freely gave up 
reigning and ruling and voluntarily began serving. 
All that is to follow in the other steps in Christ’s 


34 THE SINLESS INCARNATION . 
: 


voluntary humiliation is included in “taking the 
form of a servant.” I shall therefore not dwell long 
upon this step, but pass on to consider the other — 
downward steps included in his becoming poor and 
“taking the form of a servant.” 


CHAPTER III 
THE ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT 


Her was “made in the likeness of men.” 


The Fourth Step in Christ’s Humiliation 


We have now reached in Christ’s humbling him- 
self the fourth step which includes his sinless incar- 
nation. As I am only attempting to set in order 
the account as found in the sacred book of the 
Christians, I shall begin with Prophecy, or the fore- 
telling of Christ’s incarnation which makes him a 
real historical personality. 

Christ’s incarnation is without parallel among the 
‘marvelous events of history, and is “Immanuel, God 
with us.” Therefore even Jehovah could not let it 
‘come and go without prophetic announcement. 
Though Jesus was born in obscure Bethlehem twenty 
centuries ago, the greatness of the event is seen in 
the fact that after twenty centuries no man in the 
civilized world, no matter of what religion, can cor- 
rectly date a letter to his friend without recogniz- 
ing Christ’s incarnation; that is, it changed the 
course of history. In the Old Testament are found 
over sixty prophecies concerning the Christ’s incar- 
nation, his life on earth and his death. Out of this 
great number I shall quote only four prophecies 
which were all made between seven and nineteen 


hundred years before Christ’s incarnation. 
36 


36 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be : 


blessed. 
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, 
and shall call his name Immanuel.? 


Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, which art little to be — 
among the thousands of Juda, out of thee shall one © 


come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; 


whose goings forth are from of old, from everlast- — 


ing.® 


Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; © 
and the government shall be upon his shoulders; — 


and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, 
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.4 


Let these four prophecies out of many suffice. 

Let us now pass on to the New Testament his- 
torical account of the birth of Jesus. The Gospels 
are given us by four of his disciples, each using his 
own individuality and recording what impressed him 
most. Three of these were Jews and wrote chiefly 
for the Jews. But one, Luke, was in all probability 
a Gentile. I call special attention to Luke because 
he makes it perfectly clear that he gives his his- 
torical and biographical account for the Gentiles, 
by putting it early in his history that Jesus came 
as “a light to lighten the Gentiles.” 


Luke’s Gospel has been well called “The most | 
beautiful book ever written.” He also wrote the — 
“Book of Acts,” which gives us the history accord- | 


ing to prophecy of the first great outpouring of 
the Holy Spirit, called Pentecost, and also the 
growth and establishment of the early Christian 
Church. In Luke’s preface to his Gospel he tells 
of the exactness and care with which he traced what 


1Gen. 22.18; ?Isa. 7.14; %Mic. 5.2. ‘Isa. 9. 6. 


THE ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT oF 


he records to their original source—“eyewitnesses.”’ 
Did eyer a historian select his material with greater 
care than Luke tells us he did? 

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw 
up a narrative concerning those matters which have 
been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered 
them unto us, who from the beginning were eye- 
witnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good 
to me also, having traced the course of all things 
accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order, 
most excellent Theophilus; that thou mightest know 
the certainty concerning the things wherein thou 
wast instructed. 


Luke connects his second historical book, “The 
Acts,” with his first, “Luke’s Gospel,” by saying, 
“The former treatise I made, . . . concerning all 
that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the 
day in which he was received up” into heaven. Then 
connecting the two books perfectly he goes on with 
the history following Christ’s ascension. 

One of the greatest modern Bible scholars, the 
Rev. W. F. Warren, founder and president-emeritus 
of Boston University, has written what is worthy 
by way of introduction to insert here. It shows 
the reverence and faith with which great Christian 
scholars in Christian lands now regard the New 
Testament record of the incarnation. He calls it 
“The Divine Overshadowing.” 

It is of ineffable sacredness and mystery. It was 
preannounced in words which my lips are not worthy 
to repeat—words which only the white angel of the 
Annunciation was worthy to bring to human ears: 


“The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, 
thou blessed among women!” It is not for me—it is 


38 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


not for any mortal man—to interpret those words. 
Here earth’s highest mysteries meet and blend. But, 
blessed be God! the words got uttered, and never 
can the universe be what it would have been had 
they never been spoken. And, blessed be God! it is 
for me, and for every member of my race, to hail 
the issue in a sinless, unbegotten Man, an unex- 
ampled incarnate Son of God. A new creation was 
begun, one far surpassing that archetypal one ef- 
fected, when in the beginning, the same power of 
the Highest overshadowed the primal waters and 
commanded that light and life should be. Here, 
first, is the world of creatures permitted to see the 
divine becoming human, and the human divine. 


The Angelic Announcement 


God’s purpose of love in Sending his angel to 
Mary, who was to be the mother of J esus, was that 
she might understand perfectly the great mystery, 
and it is recorded that the countless millions of 
common people, and also the cultured, of all lands 
and all coming ages might so understand the story 
of the Sinless Incarnation as to be able to intelli- 
gently receive the Lord Jesus as their divine Saviour. 
The angel has made the telling of this matchless mys- 
tery of history one of the choicest gems of all litera- 
ture, chaste, clear, and beautiful; but this required 
the angel of the Lord. Having the mystery in mind, 
which the angel came to reveal with an open mind 
to receive the truth, read reverently the angelic 
announcement of the Sinless Incarnation: 


The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city 
of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed 
to a man whose name was J oseph, of the house of 


6Zion’s Herald, February 11, 1925. Reprinted by permission. 


THE ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT 39 


David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he 
came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art 
highly favored, the Lord is with thee. But she was 
greatly troubled at the saying, and cast in her mind 
what manner of salutation this might be. And the 
angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast 
found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt con- 
ceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt 
call his name Jusus. He shall be great, and shall be 
called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God 
shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 
and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; 
and of his kingdom there shall be no end. And 
Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing 
I know not a man? And the angel answered and 
said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon 
thee, and the power of the Most High shall over- 
shadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which 
is begotten shall be called the Son of God.® 


From what other person could Luke, the “be- 
loved physician” and accurate historian, have se- 
cured such a marvelously beautiful and complete 
account of that angelic revelation, in which the high- 
est mysteries of heaven and earth meet and are so 
blended that the divine becomes human and the hu- 
man divine, save from the only human “eyewitness,” 
Mary the mother of our Lord? 


The Angelic Testimony to Joseph 


An all-wise God, who was about to send his Son 
to be born into this world through superhuman in- 
tervention—a miraculous conception—saw clearly 
the necessity of giving a testimony concerning the 
absolute purity and holy innocence of the virgin, 


6 Luke 1. 26-35. 


40 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


“blessed among women,” and chosen of God to be 
the mother of the “God-man.” God saw that this 
testimony must be such as would absolutely satisfy 
Joseph, who was to be the virgin’s husband and yet 
not the father of the Lord Jesus, and that would 
stand sure for all people and all time. The Lord 
Jesus called Mary “mother,” yet he never called any- 
one “Father,” but God. With these facts in mind, 
read reverently the testimony of the “angel of the 
Lord” : 


Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: 

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to 
Joseph, before they came together she was found 
with child of the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her hus- 
band, being a righteous man, . . . was minded to 
put her away privily. But when he thought on 
these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared 
unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of 
David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: 
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy 
Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son; and thou 
shalt call his name Jxusus; for it is he that shall 
save his people from their sins. Now all this is 
come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, 

Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall 

bring forth a son, 

And they shall call his name Immanuel; 
which is, being interpreted, God with us. And 
Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of 
the Lord commanded him, and took unto him his 
wife; and knew her not till she had brought forth a 
son: and he called his name Jesus.’ 


Where but from Joseph, the only “eyewitness,” 


7 Matt. 1. 18-25. 


THE ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT Al 


could the Gospel historian have received this ac- 
count? 


The Angelic Announcement of the Birth of Jesus 


God, in the message to Mary and Joseph, fur- 
nished all the evidence concerning the sinless incar- 
nation that one would think could ever be necessary 
to make it easy for all people to believe on his Son 
~ Jesus Christ. But lest some heart, somewhere, some- 
time, might want yet more assurance, God sent his 
angels on the night of the birth of the Lord Jesus 
to tell the shepherds, men of honest toil. God al- 
ways honors men of honest toil; so, to those who 
represented the millions of earth’s toilers the angels 
came. Listen to the angelic joyful announcement: 


And there were shepherds in the same country 
abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night 
over their flock. And an angel of the Lord stood 
by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round 
about them: and they were sore afraid. And the 
angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for behold, I 
bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be 
to all the people: for there is born to you this day 
in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the 
Lord. And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find 
a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in 
a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel 
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and 
saying, 

Glory to God in the highest, 

And on earth peace among men, in whom he is 
well pleased.® 


What the shepherds found needs no comment, fur- 


8Luke 2, 8-14. 


42 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


ther than to say that the finding of the shepherds 
confirmed the announcement of the angels. Here is 
the testimony of the shepherds: 

And it came to pass, when the angels went away 
from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to 
another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and 
see this thing that is come to pass, which the Lord 
hath made known unto us. And they came with 
haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the 
babe lying in the manger. And when they saw it, 
they made known concerning the saying which was 
spoken to them about this child. And all that 
heard it wondered at the things which were spoken 
unto them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all 
these sayings, pondering them in her heart. And 
the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God 
for all the things that they had heard and seen, even 
as it was spoken unto them.? 


The lack of space makes impossible the reproduc- 
tion of all the wonderful story, but I will give the 
story of the three Wise Men who, guided by a star 
in the heavens, came from the East to worship the 
child Jesus; and many have thought that they came 
from India.; Here it is: 

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judza 
in the days of Herod the king, behold, Wise-Men 
from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is 


he that is born King of the Jews? for we saw his 
star in the east, and are come to worship him.?® 


Herod the king tried to get the Wise Men to tell 
him where the child was, saying, “that I may come 
and worship him.” But he meant “that I may come 
and kill him.” 
~ *Luke 2. 18-20. 10 Matt. 2. 1-2. 


THE ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT 43 


God warned the Wise Men in a dream, after they 
had worshiped the child Jesus the Lord, not to tell 
the king where he was; so they departed another 
way into their own country. Then Herod, when 
he saw that he had been mocked, “sent forth and 
slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem, 
from two years old and under,” hoping that he 
might kill Jesus; but God had warned Joseph in a 
dream, and the Lord Jesus was gone. This story of 
the wickedness of a wicked king gives us, concerning 
the birth of the Lord Jesus, the additional testimony 
of the Wise Men and a great Roman king. 

Do not all these angelic revelations historically 
recorded lift all that is mysterious up out of the 
realm of the human and into that of the divine? 
Since one of the very highest conceptions of Hindu- 
ism is found in the idea of incarnations, it should 
be easy for India to believe that God manifest in the 
flesh, the fulfillment of India’s heart’s desire, was 
of God and maiden born. It should not be hard for 
India to believe that God, who is the author of all 
life, could make a loving representation of himself 
through a human incarnation, when such holy love 
ealled for such a revelation as “For God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but 
have eternal life.” 

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ for two 
thousand years, on the anniversary of the sinless 
incarnation, has sung hymns of joy and praise. 
Here is part of the hymn that, when a child, fired 
my heart and imagination, when I heard it sung on 
such anniversaries, and it fires them still: 


44 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


“Mortals, awake, with angels join, 
And chant the solemn lay; 

Joy, love, and gratitude combine, 
To hail the auspicious day. 


“In heaven the rapturous song began, 
And sweet seraphic fire 

Through all the shining legions ran, 
And strung and tuned the iyre. 


“Swift through the vast expanse it flew, 
And loud the echo rolled! 

The theme, the song, the joy was new— 
’Twas more than heaven could hold. 


“Down through the portals of the sky 
The impetuous torrent ran; 

And angels flew, with eager joy, 
To bear the news to man. 


“Hail, Prince of Life, forever hail! 
Redeemer, Brother, Friend! 

Though earth, and time, and life shall fail, 
The praise shall never end.” 


Meditate now upon the humiliation of the Lord 
Jesus. He who “was God” is born in a manger, ina 
stable among the cattle. India probably has more 
poor people than has any other land, and some of 
the poorest people on earth. Christ was born poorer 
than the poorest of the poor of India. I have often 
thought, since Christ was an Asiatic, that God had 
India’s poor people in mind when Christ was born. 
As I go about among the millions of the poor in 
India, I can always tell them of a Ssympathizing 
Christ who became poorer than the poorest; and 
that “the Lord Jesus knows” all about their poverty. 


THE ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT 45 


Then, his parents had to flee from their own land 
and their own people into a strange land and among 
a strange people, in order to save the life of the 
child, the Lord Jesus. Have you ever heard of par- 
ents, even in India, who had to do that? There is 
persecution for Christians in India; but even in that 
you can have comfort through looking to Jesus who, 
as a child, because of persecution, had to be carried 
into a strange land. “Jesus knows” all about your 
persecution ; for, having “taken on himself the form 
of a man,” he went to the bottom, and fulfilled the 
prophecy, “Surely he hath borne our griefs and car- 
ried our sorrows.” 


CHAPTER IV 
FROM MANGER TO BETRAYAL 
“He humbled himself, becoming obedient.” 


The Fifth Step in Christ’s Humiliation 

Tuts is Christ’s fifth downward step. Christ was 
not only a servant, but an “obedient” servant and 
man—obedient to the will of God and obedient to 
his parents. Think next upon his “obedience” to his 
parents in boyhood, young manhood, and to God in 
his public ministry. 

Jesus Under Twelve. We have but one short 
statement about Jesus from the time of his infancy 
up to the age of twelve, yet it is a wholly satisfy- 
ing account: 


The child grew, and waxed strong, filled with 
wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.! 


What more could we ask than to have him “grow” 
as do others, become “strong,” be “filled with wis- 
dom” and have “the grace of God’? 

Then follows a most instructive story of his re- 
maining behind his parents for three days in the 
Temple (note his religious intuitions, not worldly 
things, but in the Temple) at Jerusalem and in the 
midst of the teachers, “both hearing them and ask- 
ing them questions; and all that heard him were 
amazed at his understanding and his answers.” 


1Luke 2. 40. 
46 


FROM MANGER TO BETRAYAL 47 


This full story is found in the second chapter of 
Saint Luke’s Gospel. 

The Lord Jesus From Twelve.to Thirty. Much 
of what we know of the life of Christ from the age 
of twelve to thirty is here given: 


He went down with them [his parents], and came 
to Nazareth; and he was subject unto them: and 
his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And 
_ Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor 
with God and men. 


Let us try to get acquainted with those in the 
home where the Lord Jesus lived and worked up to 
the age of thirty years. Both Joseph and Mary, 
his mother, were of royal blood, being of the house 
and lineage of David, and they both belonged, 
though poor, to the very highest and best of the 
Jewish race. The culture and piety of the Holy 
Family must be kept in mind, in order to have any 
proper estimate of the early life and spiritual cul- 
ture of the Lord Jesus. Joseph was “a righteous 
man,” counted worthy of the confidence of heaven, 
for he was four times honored by having the “angel 
of the Lord” appear unto him; the first time to en- 
lighten him concerning Mary, to whom he was be- 
trothed, saying, “That which is conceived in her is 
of the Holy Spirit.” Next, to save the life of the 
Lord Jesus, the angel told him to “take the young 
child and his mother, and flee unto Egypt, and be 
thou there until I tell thee.’ Then, when the dan- 
ger was past, the “angel of the Lord” said unto 
Joseph, “Arise and take the young child and his 


* Luke 2. 51, 52. 


48 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


mother and go into the land of Israel.” And the 
fourth time he was warned of God to go to a city 
called Nazareth, that the prophecy concerning the 
Lord Jesus might be fulfilled, “He shall be called 
a Nazarene.” Joseph did all these things, and such 
was the noble character of him who was at the 
head of the home where Jesus was reared. 

The poverty of this royal family saved Jesus from 
having a governess or tutor, and gave him Mary his 
mother for a teacher, a constant companion, coun- 
selor and friend, for thirty years. Oh, such a 
mother, chosen by God the Father to be the mother 
of “Immanuel,” Mary, to whom the angel said, “The 
Lord is with thee, . . . blessed art thou among 
women!” Having parents of royal descent of the 
highest known purity and piety, and with a con- 
sciousness that they were rearing the Child of divine 
conception, of age-long expectation by their great 
nation, through whom there was to be “glad tidings 
of great joy to all people,” is it any wonder that 
the divine Jesus grew up without sin, and “spake as 
never man spake”? Ordinarily, the great men of 
one generation are surpassed by those of the next, 
but the world in all its moral teaching has never 
produced a moral code to be compared with the 
Sermon on the Mount. The Lord Jesus is still the 
wisest of the wise andthe holiest of the holy—the 
‘Sinless Incarnation. 

During these years “he was a carpenter”’—he 
worked with his hands, and helped in supporting his 
mother, who, it is believed, early became a widow. 
Think of Jesus, who was to be the Saviour of the 
world, ennobling labor by giving eighteen years of 


FROM MANGER TO BETRAYAL 49 


his life to honest toil! Is he not in this a model 
for the young men of India? 

The Public Ministry of the Lord Jesus. In mak- 
ing his baptism the first act in entering upon his 
public ministry, Christ fulfilled all the requirements 
of the law for his consecration from on high to the 
office of Messiah. His last commandment to his dis- 
ciples was: “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of 
all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

Has not the Lord Jesus, in being baptized, left an 
example of obedience to be followed by all, in all 
nations, who desire to become his true disciples? 
Here is the record: 

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan 
unto John, to be baptized of him. But John would 
have hindered him, saying, I have need to be hap- 
tized of thee, and comest thou to me? But Jesus 
answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it 
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he 
suffereth him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, 
went up straightway from the water: and lo, the 
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the 
Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming 
upon him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, say- 


ing, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased.® 


The two great facts always to be remembered are, 
that at his baptism the Holy Spirit, by whom he was 
conceived, came again upon him; and the voice of 
God came out of heaven, saying, “My beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased.” ‘That is, God the 
Father and the Holy Spirit bore testimony to their 
~§ Matt. 3. 13-17. 


50 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


pleasure in and approval of this way of Jesus enter- 
ing upon his public ministry. This was followed by 

The Temptation of the Lord Jesus. Times of 
testing have always had a place in the life of reli- 
gious leaders, and Jesus was no exception. Here 
is the record: 


Then was Jesus led of the Spirit into the wilder- 
ness to be tempted [tested] of the devil. And when 
he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he after- 
wards hungered.‘ ° 


Satan’s chief and selfish purposes in Christ’s test- 
ing, as the second scene in His temptation will show, 
was to have himself worshiped and induce Jesus to 
found a kingdom of this world: 


And he [Satan] led him up, and showed him all 
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 
And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give 
all this authority, and the glory of them: for it 
hath been delivered unto me; and to whosoever I 
will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship be- 
fore me, it shall all be thine.® 


Jesus did not yield, but, as soon as the tempta- 
tion was over, he began to preach, “My kingdom is 
not of this world.” If Christ had chosen to have a 
temporal kingdom, to include all other kingdoms 
and to be the greatest that earth had ever known, 
and if he had joined the Jews to throw off the 
Roman yoke, and had shown earthly ambitions, he 
would never have been crucified. But that is just 
what he did not do. He chose to found a kingdom 
that would be neither temporal, national, nor polit- 


4Matt. 4. 1, 2. 5 Luke 4. 5-7. 


FROM MANGER TO BETRAYAL 51 


ical, but spiritual. His kingdom was to be “of God,” 
“of heaven” (used interchangeably) ; that is, it was 
to be ruled from heaven and exist among all the 
earthly kingdoms to make earth more like heaven. 
The simplest possible summary of “the kingdom of 
God” is found in the petition in the Lord’s Prayer: 
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

Christ’s deliberate choice to obey, while on earth, 
only the will of God, and to wholly renounce Satan, 
the world and worldly ambition, reveals clearly and 
forever the purpose of his kingdom and completely 
explains the non-spiritual, wicked, earthly hate that 
culminated in his crucifixion. 

His Public Ministry. The following verse con- 
tains an outline of the three years of the public 
ministry of Jesus: 


And Jesus went about all the cities and the vil- 
lages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner 
of disease and all manner of sickness.® 


For a full account of all his wonderful works of 
mercy and love, I must refer you to the four Gos- 
pels. I have now given an outline of Christ’s public 
ministry and the purpose of his kingdom on earth. 
Before telling of Christ’s sacrificial death, glorious 
resurrection, reigning in glory, and his coming 
again, I shall present a summary of Christ’s teach- 
ings, by means of which his kingdom is to advance. 

(A) The Fatherhood of God Is the Chief Corner- 
stone of the Kingdom. Jesus said to his people, 
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father 


6 Matt. 9. 35. 


52 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


who art in heaven.” This tender, loving teaching 
is that God, the All-Wise, All-Powerful, gives to each 
of us a Father’s loving thought and personal care, 
and has an eternal plan for each child; and yet, 
with all that, he also maintains his Fatherly, Kingly 
majesty. The teaching of the kingdom concerning 
the Fatherhood of God is well summed up in the 
matchless exhibition of a father’s love, as seen in the 
story of the prodigal son (Luke 15. 11-32). 

(B) Conditions of Membership in Christ's King- 
dom. Nicodemus, a very religious man, early in 
the public ministry of Jesus, came by night and said, 
“Thou art a teacher come from God.” And the 
Lord Jesus, accepting that office, at once concerning 
membership in his kingdom, said: 

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born 
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must 
be born anew.’ 


Nicodemus, astonished at such high doctrine, 
asked this vital question: “How can a man be born 
anew, or be born from above?” Jesus answered— 
oh glorious and all-sufficient answer: | 

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that 


whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.® 
(See Num. 21. 4-9.) 


And for a further and fuller answer, Jesus said: 


For God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
1 John 3. 5-7. 8 John 3. 14, 15. 


FROM MANGER TO BETRAYAL 53 


should not perish, but have eternal life. For God 
sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; 
but that the world should be saved through him.? 


(C) The Lord Jesus Himself and the Kingdom. 
I will present here only what the Lord Jesus said 
concerning himself, which sets forth what his disci- 
ples have, his own word for believing concerning 
him: 

I am the light of the world (John 8. 12). 

IT am the bread of life (John 6. 48). 

I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one 
cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14. 6), 

The Son of man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost (Luke 19. 10). 

The Son of man hath authority on earth to for- 
give sins (Matt. 9. 6). 

I am the resurrection and the life (John 11. 25). 

All authority hath been given unto me in heaven 
and on earth (Matt. 28. 18). 

I am the Son of God (John 10. 30). 

I and the Father are one (John 10. 30). 

Ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right 
hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven 
(Matt. 26. 64). 


(D) Until His Coming Again, How Is the King- 
dom to Be Carried Forward? (1) His followers 
have the Bible for their guide. Here is an outline of 
the best way for one of another religion to read the 
Bible. 

(a) Read the four Gospels for the story of the 
life of the Lord Jesus. 

(b) Read chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the Gospel of 
Matthew for the moral code of Christ’s kingdom. 

® John 3. 16, 17. 


54 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


(c) Read Saint John’s Gospel, chapters 14, 15, 
and 16 for Christ’s final address and his deepest 
spiritual teachings. 

(d) Then read the New and the Old Testaments, 
and in that order. 

(2) We are to pray in his name. Here is his 
promise just before his ascension: 

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that 


will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the 
Son.?° 


(3) The promise of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus 
was about to leave his disciples, and return to go 
to the Father, sorrow filled their hearts. Then 
Jesus, concerning the work of the Holy Spirit dur- 
ing his absence, gave some most wonderful prom- 
ises. Jesus said: 


Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient 
for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the 
Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I 
will send him unto you. 

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he 
Shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not 
speak from himself; but what things soever he shall 
hear, these shall he speak; and he shall declare unto 
you the things that are to come. He shall glorify 
me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it 
unto you.!? 

But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom 
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you 
all things, and bring to your remembrance all that 
I said unto you.!% 


(4) Then there is his farewell commandment: 


And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, 
John 14.13, “John 16.7. 1John 16. 13,14. ™John 14. 26. 


FROM MANGER TO BETRAYAL 55 


saying, All authority hath been given unto me in 
heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Spirit.* 


Having thus briefly outlined the fundamental prin- 
ciples of Christ’s kingdom, and having directed the 
reader to where he can find the full record of the 
three years of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus, 
and having explained his provision for its spread 
throughout the earth, in our next chapter we shall 
present the Gospel story of his atoning, sacrificial 
suffering. 

14 Matt. 28. 18, 19. 


CHAPTER V 


GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY—OBEDIENT 
UNTO DEATH — 


THe SixtH Step in Curist’s HUMILIATION 


TuIs is the sixth downward step. Here we come 
to the deepest mysteries of grace. Christ the 
Source of all life obedient unto voluntary death: “I 
lay down my life.” As much as to say, “If the love 
shown in my life is not sufficient, I will show my 
love through my death.” There is no device in 
Christ’s kingdom to win by the sword or force. His 
plan is victory through suffering. 

Why did Christ die for man? Because man, 
though sinful, bore his image. Christ’s death gives 
us three great revelations from heaven. 

Man is great. 

Man is a great sinner. 7 

Man is capable of being recreated and of becom- 
ing an eternal coheir with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Indeed, Christ’s estimate of man’s value is so 
exalted that to no small extent it explains the mys- 
tery of his being both the Son of God and the Son 
of man. 

This leads us, under the sixth downward step, to 
the presentation of the manner of Christ’s death. 

“Even the Death of the Cross.” No one knows 
when he may die, but we all hope, when the time 
comes for dying, to be among our friends and loved 


ones, enjoying comforts and kindness. But the 
56 


GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY 57 


friends of Jesus “all forsook him and fled,” and he 
was delivered over to cruel enemies and died at their 
hands, “even the death of the cross.” It was in that 
day the emblem of the world’s bitterest hate. 
Thank God, this brutal form of taking human life 
has almost been banished from the face of the earth 
for fifteen or more centuries! 

What Precedes the Cross. In order that we may 
better understand the meaning of the cross, let us 
go with the Lord Jesus through some of the scenes 
preparatory to his crucifixion. 

Pause at Gethsemane. Jesus entered Gethsemane, 
saying, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death.” Here began the real propitiation for our 
sins. Was not the intensity of suffering caused by 
the fact that in his infinite purity he began to feel 
the utter vileness and pollution of sin? 

Here and through all that follows, the greatest 
suffering is not in the body, but in the soul. In the 
garden there was no physical torture, but his soul 
agony, under the burden of our sins, caused the 
sweating of great drops of blood. Do not suppose 
the soul’s existence is to be proved by words, for 
there are pains and joys which only the soul can 
feel. In this agony the Lord Jesus kneeled down 
—see the Lord Jesus on his knees—and prayed, 
saying: 

Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from 
me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 

. And being in an agony he prayed more ear- 


nestly ; and his sweat became as it were great drops 
of blood falling down upon the ground. 


1 Luke 22. 42-44. 


58 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Try to picture that scene. He was carrying on 
his soul the burden of the sins of the world, and 
saw before him the cross; his sinless, royal hands 
that had healed the multitude, he knew were soon 
to be pierced by the cruel nails. Then, he was to 
be made of “no reputation.” How we care for our 
reputation. How it would hurt you, should any 
stain come upon your good name. He saw that he 
was to be counted as a criminal and “accursed.” 

Only once did I hear that great London preacher, 
Charles H. Spurgeon, and his text was: “Between 
two thieves.” And that greatest of preachers 
painted such a picture of Christ’s glory with the 
Father before the world was, and then in contrast 
the humiliation, the shame and his loss of reputa- 
tion, his dying as a criminal “between two thieves,” 
as had never before come into my thought. Then 
and there in an entirely new sense I realized some- 
thing of what it meant for the Son of God to hang 
on the accursed cross “between two thieves.” Do 
yon wonder that in contemplation of such shame 
and soul agony “his sweat became as it were great 
drops of blood falling down upon the ground”? 

Meditate also upon the Father’s love as tested in 
that hour of his Son’s infinite agony, if you desire 
to have some conception of God the Father’s love 
for sinful man. I see God the Father, who had 
given his only begotten Son to save his enemies, 
looking down with a pierced heart upon that Geth- 
semane garden scene; he sees his beloved Son, 
Jesus, in unutterable soul agony, and Judas, to — 
whom his Son had given three years of his life, 
betraying Jesus with a kiss; he sees the mob with 


GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY 59 


the staves assembling; he sees his Son in agony 
praying more earnestly until “his sweat became as 
it were great drops of blood falling down upon the 
ground.” 

Have you ever tried to imagine what it must 
have cost God, the holy, loving Father, to restrain 
himself from exerting his divine power, while his 
only begotten and dearly beloved pleads with him, 
saying, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me”? Or, in other words, “Father, if there is 
any other way to save the people, spare me, spare 
me.” 

But the love of God the Father for lost sinners 
stood the strain. 

There is one passage in prophetic vision that mas- 
ters me, that overwhelms me. It is a prophetic por- 
trayal of the Father’s love. The prophecy is con- 
cerning Jesus, God’s only Son, the Child of infinite 
love: 


He was wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our 
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are 
healed.” 


This always in my thinking refers to Christ’s ap- 
peal in the garden: “Father, if it be possible, let 
this cup pass.” The prophet adds a humanly incom- 
prehensible statement concerning this awful hour, 
which was literally fulfilled when the Lord Jesus, 
God’s Son, was in the sinner’s place, making it pos- 
sible for sin to be canceled and God’s forgiving love 
to reach the sinner. Here is the prophecy: 


2Isa. 53. 5. 


60 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Although he had done no violence, neither was 
any deceit in his mouth, Yet it pleased Jehovah 
[his Father] to bruise him. 


That he might spare the guilty sinner. 

The infinite love and grace that enabled the Al- 
mighty Father to restrain his power during that 
awful scene, and not destroy those who were killing 
his Son, is infinitely above human comprehension ; 
but it leaves no doubt concerning the great revealed 
truth, that “God [the Father] so loved the world, 
that he gave his only begotten Son” to be “wounded 
for our transgressions,” and “bruised for our in- 
iquities.” 

Is it not blasphemous misrepresentation of the 
love of God to say that he loves sinners only because 
Christ died for them? 

While Jesus was thus praying in agony and at 
intervals coming and teaching his disciples, 


Behold, a multitude, and he that was called Judas, 
one of the twelve, went before them; and he drew 
near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto 
him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a 
kiss? And when they which were about him saw 
what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we smite 
with the sword? And a certain one of them smote 
the servant of the high priest, and struck off his 
right ear. But Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye 
them thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed 
him. Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and 
captains of the temple, and elders, that were come 
against him, Are ye come out, as against a robber, 
with swords and staves? When I was daily with 
you in the temple, ye stretched not forth your hands 
against me: but this is your hour, and the power of 
darkness. 


GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY 61 


..And they seized him, and led him away, and 
brought him into the high priest’s house. 


And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and 
beat him. And they blindfolded him, and asked 
him, saying, Prophesy, who is he that struck thee? 
And many other things spake they against him, re- 
viling him. 

And as soon as it was day, the assembly of the 
elders of the people was gathered together, both 
chief priests and scribes; and they led him away 
into their council saying, If thou art the Christ, tell 
us. But he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will 
not believe: And if I ask you, ye will not answer. 
But from henceforth shall the Son of man he seated 
at the right hand of the power of God. And they 
all said, Art thou then the Son of God? And he 
said unto them, Ye say that I am. And they said, 
What further need have we of witness? for we our- 
selves have heard his own mouth.® 


Jesus, rather than deny that he was the Christ, 
the Son of God, gave the final evidence against him- 
self that they needed in order to crucify him. 

I will pass over many cruel indignities suffered 
by the sinless Jesus and come to “Then released he 
unto them Barabbas; but Jesus he scourged.” 

Doctor Talmage, a once famous preacher of New 
York, told of traveling in Europe and finding in an 
obscure art gallery a picture of the scourging of 
Jesus. Jesus was in a standing and bending position. 
His hands were tied near the ground; with his body 
thus bent, his back bared, great, strong Roman sol- 
diers, using heavy whips plaited with thongs tipped 
with iron wire, were laying lash upon lash, until the 


8 Luke 22. 47-71. 


62 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


royal flesh and blood of Jesus were falling and lying 
together upon the ground. We know that from this 
scourging he was so exhausted that he was unable 
to carry the cross. Doctor Talmage said, “After I 
saw that picture, I could not eat, I could not sleep, ~ 
I could only lie awake and weep.” This brutal 
Scourging was but one of the “woundings for our 
transgressions” that the Lord Jesus endured on his 
way to “even the death of the cross.” 

Let us with sad hearts pass to another stage of 
Christ’s being prepared for his crucifixion. Close 
your eyes, let Christ be the central figure, and with 
inner soul vision look upon the scene that follows 
the scourging. Let the inspired author bring it be- 
fore us: 


But Jesus he scourged and delivered to be cru- 
cified. 

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into 
the Pretorium, and gathered unto him the whole 
band. And they stripped him, and put on him a 
scarlet robe. And they platted a crown of thorns 
and put it upon his head, and a reed in his right 
hand; and they kneeled down before him, and 
mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And 
they spat upon him, and took the reed and smote 
him on the head. And when they-had mocked him, 
they took off from him the robe, and put on him 
his garments, and led him away to crucify him. 


Could the ingenuity of hell go further? A com- 
plete ceremony of mock coronation, a mock scar- 
let royal robe, a reed, mock symbol of sovereignty, 
knees bowed in mockery to a crown of thorns—how 


4 Matt. 27. 26-31. 


GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY 63 


suggestive! The curse on the earth because of sin 
was that it should bring forth thorns. Now, when 
Christ is removing the curse, he is crowned with 
thorns. But, in the madness and delirium of the 
mock ceremony, they seize the reed and strike the 
crown, driving the thorns into his royal, holy brow. 
And then, as a climax to their bitter hate, and in- 
dignities, they “spat upon him” 

India understands the meaning of such a vile 
_ indignity. I remember hearing of a son who had 
rebelled against his earthly parents, as God says his 
children have rebelled against him. That son went 
into a life of dissipation, until his mother died of 
a broken heart. Yet the father, in love for his son, 
spent all he possessed, paying liquor, gambling, and 
other bills. One evening, after the mother had died 
and the home had been ruined, the father sat by the 
roadside watching and waiting for his wayward 
son’s return. Just in the early twilight he saw him 
coming and went out to welcome him; but the son, 
mad with intoxication, saw his father, ran toward 
him, caught his father’s long white beard between 
his two hands, and with a hand on each side of 
his father’s face drawing that aged face close to his 
own, he spat and spat into his father’s face. It is 
reported that when that aged, enfeebled father got 
himself loose from his son, he started off in the twi- 
light over a hilltop, and, as he went, he was heard 
to ery aloud with a great groan of agony; and with 
that agonizing cry, all love for his son died out of 
that father’s heart. That father never again called 
him son, nor had anything to do with him. That is, 
a father’s love in that hour of testing failed; human 


64 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


love died. But, thank God, the love of the Lord 
Jesus stood even the test of being “spat upon”! 

That is, the all-enduring love of the Christ did not 
fail; for even after they “spat upon him,” he per- | 
mitted his persecutors to lead him away to crucify 
him. 

And when they were come to a place called Gol- 
gotha, that is to say, The place of a skull, they gave 
him wine to drink mingled with gall: ard when he 
had tasted it, he would not drink.® 


It was the custom to give those who were about 
to suffer this lingering and most painful death a 
benumbing drink, but the Lord Jesus refused it and 
suffered “even the death of the cross” in full pos- 
session of all his faculties. 

Crucifying Jesus. Have you ever tried to bring 
into the realm of your imagination the crucifixion 
scene: the multitude that followed, and with Satanic 
hate stood around and jeered to see the soldiers take 
off his seamless robe—the gift of love—and gamble 
over it? How they watched with fiendish glee the 
great rugged cross being thrown upon the ground, 
the soldiers, taking Christ, disrobing him, and throw- 
ing him roughly down upon the cross and spreading 
his hands out on its arms. 

Then they nailed to the cross the right hand first, 
the symbol of power. Look at that divinely royal, 
holy hand of the Lord Jesus. What had it done to 
merit this? By honest toil it had supported a 
widowed mother—what a suggestion for the treat- 
ment of widowed mothers in India! That hand had 


- 6 Matt. 27. 33, 34. 


GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY 65 


been laid in blessing upon the heads of little chil- 
dren, making parents rejoice; it had fed the hungry, 
touched blind eyes and they saw, deaf ears and they 
heard, dumb tongues and they spake, the lame and 
they leaped for joy, and the dead and they lived. 

Oh, see them! They are spreading that holy hand 
back downward upon the rugged cross. Look! That 
great, cruel soldier is putting his heavy knee upon 
the wrist, that the right hand of the Lord Jesus 
may not move. See that other soldier pointing a 
rough iron spike right over that tender quivering 
‘palm, and hear the thud, as another soldier with a 
huge mallet strikes blow upon blow, blow upon 
blow, until the cruel spike has gone through that 
royal, holy hand and entered into the wood far 
enough to hold the weight of the body of the Lord 
Jesus. | | 

Then they nail the left hand, just as sinless and 
royal as the right hand, and it had helped in every 
good work. 

Look again: they are stretching his body down 
on the cross and are nailing his holy feet, those feet 
that during weary days and nights carried the Lord 
Jesus through the length and breadth of the land, 
to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and bless the 
people. 

They have finished nailing him to the cross. What 
next? | 

They are beginning to lift the cross to which is 
nailed the sinless body of the Lord Jesus. Look, 
they have it erect, they are moving forward to hold 
it directly over a hole in the rock, about four feet 
deep. It is correctly poised; they are letting go; 


66 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


it drops with cruel jar; strikes the bottom and the 
Lord Jesus is being crucified—hanging upon the 
“accursed tree.” 

The Sinlessness of Jesus. I shall here present the 
inspired record of the complete failure of a nation 
to prove that Jesus had sinned, and also the testi- 
mony of the governor and judge that Jesus was 
sinless: 


When therefore they were gathered together, 
Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release 
unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? 
For he knew that for envy they had delivered him 
up. And while he was sitting on the judgment-seat, 
his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing 
to do with that righteous man; for I have suffered 
many things this day in a dream because of him. 
Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the 
multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas, and 
destroy Jesus. But the governor answered and said 
unto them, Which of the two will ye that I release 
unto you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate saith 
unto them, What then shall I do unto Jesus who is 
called Christ? They all say, Let him be crucified. 
And he said, Why, what evil hath he done? But 
they cried out exceedingly, saying, Let him be cruci- 
fied. So when Pilate saw that he prevailed nothing, 
but rather that a tumult was arising, he took water, 
and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, 
I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; see 
ye to it. And all the people answered and said, 
His blood be on us and on our children.® 


Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he 
was condemned, repented himself, . . . saying, I 
have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood; .. . 
and he went away and hanged himself.’ 


® Matt. 27. 17-25. 7 Matt. 27. 3-5. 


GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY 67 


At the crucifixion the centurion, and they that 
were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the 
earthquake, and the things that were done, feared 
exceedingly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.8 


8 Matt. 27. 54. 


CHAPTER VI 
ON THE CROSS 


THp SEVENTH AND FINAL Strep In CuHRIsT’s HUMILIA- 
TION 


Crass now looking at the cruel externals and turn 
to a contemplation of the soul-suffering and the 
inner and divine purpose of the cross. At once 
admit that it is love too wonderful for man, and 
learn the personal purpose of Jesus. “He loved me 
and gave himself for me.” That is, Jesus loves 
everybody, as though each one were everybody and 
there were no one else to share his love. There is 
only one perfect expression of the word “love’— 
and that is Christ on the cross. This is infinitely 
beyond human comprehension, for “God only knows 
the love of God.” What momentous questions are 
these !— 

Is he man? 

Is he God? 

Is he both? 

Does the cross look manward, or Godward, or 
toward both? 

Is death night, the end, or the morning of eternal 
life? 

Is there any comfort and hope in the death of the 
Lord Jesus for a sorrowing world? 

In looking for an answer to such soul interroga- 


tions, first listen to his words on the cross: 
68 


ON THE CROSS 69 


Father, forgive them; for they know not: what 
they do (Luke 23. 34). 

Woman, behold, thy son! And to the disciple, 
Behold, thy mother! (John 19. 26-27). 

I thirst (John 19. 28). 

To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise (Luke 
23. 43). 

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 
(Matt. 27. 46). 

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit 
(Luke 238. 46). 

It is finished (John 19. 30). 


The Lessons of the Cross 


What are some of the lessons of the words of 
Jesus Christ, spoken while on the cross? 

First. As we listen to what the Lord Jesus said 
on the cross, we are assured that he is a man. His 
voice is a human voice. His confession of need is 
human. “I thirst” is human, and is the only refer- 
ence to himself or his sufferings. The filial affection 
for his mother is human. He looks down from the 
cross at his mother as she is there, a true mother, 
bearing all the insults, saying to the railing mob, 
“He is my son.” And when the Lord Jesus saw his 
mother—oh, such a loyal mother!—and John, ‘the 
disciple whom Jesus loved,” both standing beneath 
the cross, the Lord Jesus in that hour of unutter- 
able agony forgot himself, and having no hand to 
use, he bowed his head and used his voice, saying, 
“Woman, behold, thy son!” And to the disciple, “Be- 
hold, thy mother!” 

And thus from the cross the Lord Jesus planned 
for the physical comfort of his now aged mother. 
It is not only a man who is on the cross, it is the 


70 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Son of man, the divine-human Man, having the heart 
of a man, a woman, a child, the ideal Man—“bone 
of our bone, flesh of our flesh.” Only such perfect 
humanity made possible his perfect priesthood. 
Christ’s followers, through all time and in all lands, 
ean sit at the foot of the cross and with infinite 
comfort say: 

We have not a high priest that cannot be touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that 
hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin.t 


Forgiveness 

Secondly. These sayings on the cross reveal the 
sublimity, yea, the divinity, of his forgiveness. 
While he was being nailed to the cross, and was 
hanging on the cross, and while the crowd were 
mocking and saying: “If thou art the Son of God, 
come down from the cross, . . . and we will be- 
lieve,” “He saved others; himself he cannot save,” 
what was the Lord Jesus doing? Was he cursing 
them? This he might have done, as three days be- 
fore he did the barren fig tree—and it withered and 
died. No! No! He was not doing that, but—mys- 
tery of mysteries—he was doing his Father’s will, 
and showing his Father’s infinite love for the sinful 
world. So, instead of cursing them, he was softly 
praying: “Father forgive them,” “Father forgive 
them.” Sometimes we think his teachings, “Bless 
them that curse you,” “Forgive your enemies,” “To 
him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the 
other,” are exalted teachings, and so they are. But, 


1 Heb. 4. 15, 


ON THE CROSS 71 


as our example in forgiving love, did not the Lord 
Jesus on the cross do infinitely more than he asks 
of us? 


A Missionary Experience 


Once when I was walking away up in the Hima- 
laya mountains and was approaching an old temple, 
the priest, recognizing me as a missionary, came out 
to meet me. He said: “I hear from pilgrims from 
all over India of the wonderful things you mission- 
aries are doing and the wonderful story of Christ’s 
crucifixion you tell. Will you tell me? I want to 
hear it directly from a missionary.” 

So we sat together under a tree on the side of a 
mountain, and I took my time and told him at 
length the story of Christ’s sacrificial love and for- 
giving spirit. When I reached the place where they 
were nailing Jesus to the cross, and as I told the old 
priest that even while he was being nailed to the 
‘eross the Lord Jesus prayed for his enemies, “Father 
forgive them,” the old priest sprang from my side, 
stood in front of me on a pathway just below me, 
excitedly moving backward and forward, shaking at 
me his clenched fists, while tears were rolling down 
his cheeks, and cried: “Get out of India! Get out 
of India!” 

“Why?” I replied. “Why? What have I done? 
What have I done?” 

He, trembling with excitement, answered: “Do 
not tell the warm-hearted people of India that 
matchless story of love and forgiveness; for we have 
nothing like it in Hinduism or Mohammedanism or 
Buddhism or Confucianism, or any other religion 


72 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


of this Eastern world. If you tell my warm-hearted 
people that story, they will forsake us, our temples 
and sacrifices and services, and leave us priests all 
alone, and will follow Jesus.” 

That is just what is already beginning to happen, 
and the saying of the Master himself is being ful- 
filled: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto myself.” 

Thus he spake of his cross. Paul, the first great 
missionary, knowing the power of the cross, said, “T 
am determined to know nothing among you save 
Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” ‘Christ crucified” 
contains the missionary message of forgiving love, 
for all nations and all ages. 


Comforting Revelations 


Thirdly. His sayings on the cross make comfort- 
ing revelations concerning the state of departed 
loved ones. Unite his promise to the thief on the 
cross, “To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise,” 
with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” 
and all the future is flooded with the light of re- 
vealed truth. When one dying thief came to recog- 
nize the Lord Jesus as the Christ, he prayed, ‘Re- 
member me, when thou comest into thy kingdom,” 
and received this divine assurance, “To-day shalt 
thou be with me in paradise.” 

For forty years in India I have been saddened as 
I have heard the uncomforted weeping for the dead 
and dying children, because of the depressing uncer- 
tainty in the teaching of transmigration. I have 
wished that sorrowing parents everywhere might 
know that all children, of all religions, of all lands 


ON THE CROSS 13 


and all ages, have been redeemed through the cross 
of Christ; that Jesus said concerning children, “Of 
such is the kingdom of heaven.” 

Oh, that India, China, and all nations might know 
that the Lord Jesus says to every dying child even 
as he did to the dying thief, “To-day shalt thou be 
with me in paradise”! 

Purgatory and transmigration for the children 
and all others who are in Christ cease to exist when 
paradise is revealed. Do you wonder, as you think 
of the child mortality of all lands and all religions 
through the centuries, and of how their spirits from 
among all religions are all with the Lord Jesus, that 
John was inspired to give for our comfort a view 
of heaven that has left a sorrowing world words 
of infinite consolation? 


After these things I saw, and behold, a great mul- 
titude which no man could number, out of every 
nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, 
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, 
arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; 
and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation 
unto our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto 
the Lamb. 

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
more; neither shalt the sun strike upon them, nor 
any heat; for the Lamb that is in the midst of the 
throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them 
unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe 
away every tear from their eyes.” 


All Nature Sympathized 


With the Lord Jesus in his suffering in his last 
downward step of humiliation all nature sym- 


2 Rev. 7. 9, 10, 16, 17. 


74 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


pathized, for, “From the sixth hour there was dark- 
ness over all the land until the ninth hour.” 

Darkness at Midday. Nature’s sun refused to 
shine on its suffering Creator. “The earth did 
quake” in protest; “the rocks were rent” by an 
exhibition of such love; even their marble hearts 
were broken. The very graves opened. “The veil 
of the temple was rent in two from the top to the 
bottom.” 

Ever since our first parents were driven out of the 
Garden of Eden, and “the cherubim and flame of 
sword” kept the way of the tree of life, because of 
sin, there had been a veil between a holy God and 
sinful man. Now it is rent from “top to bottom,” 
from heaven downward; “a new and living way” is 
opened for sinful man into the very presence of 
God. But, oh, the cost! Christ’s first associates on 
earth were cattle in a stable, his last, thieves on the 
cross; but for all this and all he suffered between, 
not a word of complaint. Let us now turn away 
from all that pertains to the body and look inward 
to the soul. Suffering is in proportion to the great- 
ness of the soul; so we now pass into the realm of 
suffering divine. Here the Lord Jesus, in addition 
to “tasting death for every man” and dying, “the 
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,” 
had to bear the greater trial. God the Father hid 
his face, and Christ passed into such infinite depths 
of soul darkness that one asks, Is it too much to say 
that, in God’s forsaking him, Jesus tasted hell for 
every man? 

Hear the cry from God to God, a cry divine and 
therefore absolutely incomprehensible to mortal 


ON THE CROSS 75 


man: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me ?” 

This ery “Why?” shows clearly that Jesus knew 
there was no sin or cause in himself, “the Sinless 
One,” but that the cause must lie outside of him- 
self. Without attempting to answer the “why” of 
such infinite loneliness and divine agony, commenta- 
tors here helplessly drop their pens, and even poets 
only sing: 

“?Tis mystery all—the Immortal dies, 


’Tis merey all—let earth adore, 
And angel minds inquire no more.” 


The Message of the Cross 


The philosophy of the cross is too profound by far 
for anyone in our present state of existence to fully 
explain with any human theory. Therefore I turn 
away from all human theories as incomplete, or as 
only partial explanations of such divine vicarious 
love. Let us listen to Christ himself tell of the 
price he paid that the human race might have salva- 
tion in his name. Christ’s revelation to the world is 
that God is our Father and his coming into the 
world originated in “God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten Son.” 

Follow on to Christ’s revelation of his own free, 
complete, willing cooperation with the will of the 
Father, for there is more light thrown on the mean- 
ing of the cross in the interpretation of the Christ 
himself than in the words of all others: 

The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, 


but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many. 


76 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, 


and to enter into his glory? 

Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, 
and rise again from the dead the third day; and 
that repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name unto all the nations. 


These quotations reveal Christ’s whole-hearted co- 
operation in the will of his Father, the largeness of 


that underlay it all. 

“Repentance and remission of sins.’ I am not 
unaware that this may be read by those whose reli- 
gion teaches that “Karma never errs and never 
spares,” that, logically, “Repentance is useless, re- 
sentment irrational, escape impossible.” 

“The moving finger writes; and having writ 
Moves on, nor all your pity and wit, 
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, 
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.” 


Which means, “What I have sowed, that—not 
more, but never less, and never otherwise—must I 
reap.” Nevertheless, “That repentance and remis- 
sion of sins should be preached in his name to all 
the nations” is his own definition of the message of 
the cross. He reveals in this not only his own love 
but a “God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, 
and abundant in loving-kindness and truth; keep- 
ing loving-kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity 


and transgression and sin.” In the matchless revela- 


tion of love on the cross we have 


India’s Unsolvable Problem Solved 
Stand by, look up and behold God incarnate, who 


his conception, “all the nations,” and the purpose } 


: 


: 


ON THE CROSS 17 


had all power in heaven and earth, held to the cruel 
cross, not by iron spikes, but by divine love, and 
ask yourself, What does the cross proclaim? The 
sacred Book in which the story of this amazing rev- 
elation of divine love is found teaches that, in that 
supremely mysterious hour of vicarious suffering on 
the cross, in the mind of the all-wise, loving and 
holy God-man’s unsolvable problem—the forgiveness 
of sin, restoration and the salvation of the repent- 
ant sinner—was so fully solved that the incarnate 
Christ on the cross could cry, “Jt is finished.” 

In that supreme hour, according to the Christian’s 
Bible, through the sacrificial love of God in Christ, 
a full at-one-ment was so completely made that 
for all ages God’s infinite love and righteousness 
are so fully declared that a holy God can remain for- 
ever holy and be the “just, and the justifier of him 
that believeth on Jesus.” 

Therefore a divine, perfect, and all-sufficient 
Saviour for all men who will repent of their sins 
and believe on the Lord Jesus is the message of the . 
cross “to all the nations,” to the end that God the 
Father may not only give life but life abundant 
and eternal. The sufferings on the cross also ex- 
press God’s estimate of the divinity that is in hu- 
manity. 


The Closing and Crowning Event 


The whole scene changed, all darkness disap- 
peared, for the vicarious suffering was over. Com- 
munion between the Divine Father and Son had 
been restored. Christ, no longer “forsaken,” looked 
up and was greeted with perfect approval from God 


78 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


the Father, and in words which cover the whole 
redemptive work for which the Sinless Incarnation 
came into the world, he cried, “Jt is finished.” 

Just here I have always thought the artists have 
caught the conception of painting the head of the 
Lord Jesus radiant with a crown of glory. He had 
completed a perfect salvation for a lost world. “A 
full at-one-ment was made.” Then, the Lord Jesus, 
as the “second Adam,” the representative man, in 
words that throw more authoritative light on the 
mystery and meaning of death and the future life 
than all others of all literature, said, “Father, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit.” 


CHAPTER VII 
FROM BURIAL TO ASCENSION 


Tue following full and inspired record of. the 
burial of the Lord Jesus perfects the evidence that 
he was in very truth dead, and buried; and after 
the story of his miraculous resurrection presents 
the first step in “God’s exaltation of Jesus” : 


And when even was come, there came a rich man 
from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself 
was Jesus’ disciple: this man went to Pilate, and 
asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate com- 
manded it to be given up. And Joseph took the 
body, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid 
it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in 
the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of 
the tomb, and departed. 

And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other 
Mary, sitting over against the sepulcher. 

Now on the morrow, which is the day after the 
Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were 
gathered together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we re- 
member that that deceiver said, while he was yet 
alive, After three days I rise again. Command 
therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the 
third day, lest haply his disciples come and steal 
him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from 


the dead: and the last error will be worse than the 


first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a guard: go, 
make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made 
the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, the guard being 
with them. 


1 Matt. 27. 57-66. 
79 


80 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


The Resurrection 


Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to dawn 
toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magda- 
lene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. 

And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an 
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came 
and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. His 
appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white 
as snow: and for fear of him the watchers did quake, 
and became as dead men. And the angel answered 
and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know 
that ye seek Jesus, who hath been crucified. He is 
not here; for he is risen, even as he said. Come, see 
the place where the Lord lay.? 


I shall here add the testimony of Paul in an 
historical summary of Christ’s appearances before his 
ascension, written for the strengthening of the faith 
of the church at Corinth. Paul had been a perse- 
cutor, but now Jesus accepted him, he was forgiven, 
received the Holy Spirit and became the great 
Apostle to the Gentiles. It is this same Paul who 
writes thus: 


For I delivered unto you first of all that which I 
also received, that Christ died for our sins according 
to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that 
he hath been raised on the third day according to 
the scriptures: and that he appeared to Cephas; 
then to the twelve; then he appeared to above five 
hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part 
remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then 
he appeared to James; then to all the apostles. And 
last of all, . . . he appeared to me also.® 


This means, a living Christ for a dying world. 


* Matt. 28, 1-6. 31 Cor. 15. 3-8. 


FROM BURIAL TO ASCENSION 81 


“Sing above the battle strife, 

Jesus saves, Jesus saves! 

By his death and endless life, 
Jesus saves, Jesus saves! 

Sing it softly through the gloom, 
When the heart for mercy craves; 

Sing in triumph o’er the tomb, 
Jesus saves, Jesus saves!” 


The Forty Days Before the Ascension 


“God’s exaltation of Jesus” includes forty days 
and nights after the resurrection of Jesus, and be- 
fore his ascension into heaven. The appearances 
and teaching of the Master during this period are 
steps in Christ’s exaltation, that “gave him the name 
which is above every name.” I will give but a brief 
outline of those matchless days and refer the reader 
to the Gospels for the fuller record. 


The Mountain Interview, With the Eleven Alone 


But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto 
the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And 
when they saw him, they worshiped him; but some 
doubted. And Jesus came to them and spake unto 
them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me 
in heaven and on earth. 

Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the na- 
_ tions, baptizing them into the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching 
_ them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded 
_ you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the 
_ end of the world.* 


The Last Interview and Parting Instructions Which 
Contain the Missionary Commission 


He said unto them, Thus it is written, that the 
‘Matt. 28. 16-20. 


82 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead 
the third day: and that repentance and remission of 
sin should be preached in his name unto all the na- 
tions, beginning from Jerusalem. Ye are witnesses 
of these things. And behold, I send forth the prom- 
ise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, 
until ye be clothed with power from on high.® 


God’s Exaltation of Jesus Completed 


“And he led them out until they were over against 
Bethany,” the town in which Lazarus lived, whom 
Jesus had raised from the dead. 


My Personal Testimony 


When I was in the Holy Land, and on the brow 
of the mount which overlooks Bethany, I am sure 
I stood on or near the exact spot where Jesus stood 
when “He lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he parted 
from them, and was carried up into heaven.” 

How can I ever describe the joy, inspiration, and 
strengthened assurance of the historical accuracy of 
the sacred record, when with my own eyes I saw 
that the plains, rivers, hills, cities, and towns named 
in the New Testament records are still there—and 
. when my feet stood on the very mount, and I be- 
lieve near the very spot, from which Jesus ascended 
into heaven? 

There is no greater law in the material universe 
than gravitation. When Jesus without wings on 
which to soar, or heavenly chariot in which to ride, 
moved up through space, and heaven “stooped in 
luminous cloud and robed him for enthronement,” 


5 Luke 24. 46-49. 


FROM BURIAL TO ASCENSION 83 


and the Father said, “Let all the angels of God wor- 
ship him,” then the material universe and the heay- 
enly world “crowned him Lord of all.” In heaven 
he ever lives as “King of kings and Lord of lords,” 
returned as God to where he was before his sinless 
incarnation. The seven steps in Christ’s exaltation 
as he triumphantly walks back to where he was be- 
fore his humiliation are here given as Paul gives 
them : 


1. God highly exalted him. 

2. Gave unto him the name. 

3. Which is above every name. 

4. In the name of Jesus every knee should bow. 

5. Of things in heaven and things on earth and 
things under the earth. 

6. And that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord. 

7. To the glory of God the Father. 


His Promised Return 


And while they were looking steadfastly into 
heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them 
in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus, who 
was received up from you into heaven, shall so come 
in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.® 


This agrees completely with Christ’s own state- 
ments concerning his return. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come 


_ again, and will receive you unto myself; that where 
I am, there ye may be also.? 


And then shall they see the Son of man coming 
in clouds with great power and glory. And then 


6 Acts 1. 10, 11. 1 John 14. 3. 


84 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


shall he send forth the angels, and shall gather to- 
gether his elect from the four winds, from the utter- 
most part of the earth to the uttermost part of 
heaven.® 


8 Mark 13. 26, 27. 


CHAPTER VIII 
“THAT YE MIGHT BE RICH” 


“That ye through his poverty might become rich.” 
We have seen that we cannot form a proper estimate 
of how poor Christ became except in contrast with 
how rich he was; neither can we comprehend the 
riches of the saved in Christ, except in contrast with 
the poverty and slavery of sin. I have filled up 
Paul’s outline of how Christ became poor from the 
gospel records. I will now present Paul’s own 
Statement of his slavery in sin, which one who is 
a competent judge says, “is certainly the most 
terrible tragedy in all literature, ancient or modern, 
sacred or profane.” All Shakespeare’s tragedies are 
mere stage plays, when compared with Paul’s fight 
for liberty as a slave in sin. His conflict went be- 
yond all that pertains to the body; heaven and hell 
met in a last grapple for everlasting possession of 
his immortal soul. Here is Paul’s description: 


For that which I do, I know not; for not what I 
would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I 
do. For the good which I would I do not: ‘but the 
evil which I would not, that I practice. But if what 
I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, 
but sin which dwelleth in me. Wretched man that 
Iam! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this 
death ?4 


“The body of this death.” This is an allusion to 


1Rom. 7. 15, 16, 19, 20, 24. 
85 


86 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


the unspeakably horrible custom by which some an- 
cient tyrants put their enemies to death, and repre- 
sents Paul’s conception of the condition of the sin- 
ner without a Saviour, in “the body of sin.” They 
bound a dead body to a living man, hand to hand, 
face to face, and obliged him to carry this horror 
until it brought death to him. Virgil graphically 
describes the gruesome punishment in his account of 
the tyrant Mezentius. A translation reads: 


“What tongue can such barbarities record, 
Or count the slaughters of his ruthless sword? 
*Twas not enough the good, the guiltless bled; 
Still worse, he bound the living to the dead; 
These, limb to limb, and face to face, he joined. 
Oh, monstrous crime of unexampled kind! 
Till choked with stench, the lingering wretches 
lay, 
And in the loathed embraces died away.” 


This is a true picture of Paul’s hopeless struggle 
in and through himself with sin; and who that has 
earnestly striven to live a sinless life has not had a 
similar experience? The whole human race, made 
in the image of God, had fallen into the slavery of 
sin. It is this fact that brought Christ to the cross; 
sin is the only, yet an all-sufficient, explanation. 
But when Paul received personal salvation through 
the crucified Christ, what a victory was his! 
Hear him, in contrast with slavery in the “body of 
sin”: 

I THANK GOD, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. 

. THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN 


CHRIST JESUS MADE ME FREE FROM THE 
LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. 


“THAT YE MIGHT BE RICH” 87 


A Calcutta Leper 

As an illustration, I will relate an experience 
that may be seen any day in India: Once a prom- 
inent American minister, in our home in Calcutta, 
said, “I want to see a leper asylum.” I took him 
to the government leper asylum of that great city. | 
As we passed around among its inmates, most of 
whom were Indians, in all the loathsome stages of a 
lingering death, we saw among many Indians a lit- 
tle European boy of about twelve years of age, with 
light hair and blue eyes and wearing only a dhoti 
(loin cloth). His face, shoulders, arms, hands and 
skin were bare and as pure and clean as those of 
an infant. I asked, “My boy, why are you here?’ 
His lips quivered, the tears rolling down his face. 
He was unable to answer with words, but he turned 
up the bottom of his right foot, and there just under 
the great toe was a blotch of real leprosy. Because 
of that one spot he was turned out of his home and 
forced to live as an outcaste among lepers. 

Later I heard that the one leprous spot had 
spread over his whole body, in its repulsive man- 
ner, and had caused his death. Yet, leprosy with all 
its loathsomeness, can kill only the body; but sin 
“destroys both body and soul in hell.” Suppose I 
could have told that dear boy of a great physician 
who would perfectly cure him, on the one and only 
condition that he would be willing to forsake his 
leprosy, don’t you think he would have gladly and 
quickly gone to him? 


The Great Physician 
I present to you that Great Physician of the soul, 


88 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


of whom the angel said, “His name shall be called 
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” 
What will you do? Will you come to him? 


How Rich! 


Hear what John, the disciple whom Christ loved, 
says about how rich a pardoned soul will become: 
' Beloved, now are we children of God; and it is 
not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know 


that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; 
for we shall see him even as he is.” 


Think of the glory of being forever like him, and 
seeing him, not as he was, but as he is, restored to 
the glory that he had with the Father before the 
world was! 

The poorest man, woman, or child that I have 
ever baptized in India—and I have baptized the 
poorest of the poor—if he or she truly receives the 
Lord Jesus Christ, will become rich enough to be 
with Jesus and like him, and able to sing a song of © 
redeeming love that the angels cannot sing. This 
is the message of love. Do you wonder that Paul, 
the first great missionary, said, “God forbid that I 
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ” ? 


A Heavenly Trance 

I remember hearing of a saint who, taken in a 
trance into heaven, and moving down the golden 
streets of the glorious city, came into the presence 
of a woman of marvelous spiritual beauty and 
~ 3Jobn 8. 2. 


“THAT YE MIGHT BE RICH” 89 


heavenly glory. He was overawed by her presence, 
yet he stopped and asked, } 

“Who were you on earth?” 

“Who do you think I was?” she answered. 

Then he named various saintly women of the 
Bible, but she answered, “No.” 

“Then,” he said, “were you Mary the mother of 
our Lord ?” 

She said, ‘No, no!” 

Then he asked again, “Who were you?” 

And she answered, “I was Mary Magdalene, from 
whom the Lord Jesus cast out seven devils.” 

This is but the story of vision, but I think it very 
faintly suggests all that God has prepared for every 
believer in the Christ “who became poor, that ye 
might become rich.” 


CHAPTER IX 
A PERSONAL TESTIMONY 


I cxrosn, for three reasons, with a personal testi- 
mony. First, “Ye are my witnesses” is Christ’s fare- 
well commission to his disciples, and the witnessing 
of those who have found his promises true is Christ’s 
chief provision for the spread of his kingdom. Sec- 
ond, that it may help to make clear that Jesus 
Christ is not someone away off two thousand years 
ago, but that he is as real to those who believe in 
him now as he was when in physical presence upon 
earth. Thirdly, that those who read may know that 
I have not written in any merely professional man- 
ner, but out of a joyous, helpful, experimental ac- 
quaintance with Jesus as a personal, ever-present 
Saviour, and with the hope that because of this what 
I have written may be more helpful to others. I 
shall therefore begin by telling that, in answer to 
the prayers of godly parents, the Holy Spirit in my 
early youth in a very powerful manner gave me a 
personal, powerful 


Conviction of Sin 

As a boy a sense of sin was very real to me. I 
often felt as if a real physical load was weighing 
me down. In a book called “The Pilgrim’s Prog- 
ress,” there is a story and also a picture of a man 
whose sins were tied on his back as a great burden, 
which fell off when he saw Christ on the cross. I 


had as a boy a very similar experience. I was helped 
90 


A PERSONAL TESTIMONY 91 


through the truth contained in the great Christian 
hymn which sets forth the intercession of Christ 
Jesus between his ascension and his coming again. 
It begins: 
“Arise, my soul, arise; 
Shake off thy guilty fears; 
The bleeding Sacrifice 
In my behalf appears: 
Before the throne my Surety stands, 
My name is written on his hands.” 


I knew that this was true to the teaching of the 
Bible, for it says, “If any man sin, we have an 
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
eous.” Oh, the comfort I found in the second stanza, 
describing the intercession of Jesus before the 
throne !— 

“He ever lives above, 
For me to intercede; 
His all-redeeming love, 
His precious blood, to plead; 
His blood atoned for all our race, 
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.” 


I was also sure that the continuation of the de- 
scription of Christ’s heavenly intercession was true 
to Bible teaching, which is: 

“It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that 


was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand 
of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” 


For it continued: 


“Five bleeding wounds he bears, 
Received on Calvary; 
They pour effectual prayers, 
They strongly plead for me: 


92 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


‘Forgive him, O forgive,’ they cry, 
‘Nor let that ransomed sinner die!” 


For Charlie’s Sake 


I had heard a story which as a boy helped me 
to interpret and apply the teaching of this whole 
hymn, which describes Christ’s heavenly interces- 
sion. I know that the earthly father in the story 
does not fully represent the heavenly Father in 
whose love originated all the matchless ministry of 
Christ. Nevertheless, though the story falls short 
of the love of our heavenly Father, yet, in my boy- 
hood it helped me, and I tell it with the hope it may 
help others. Here is the story as I heard it when 
a boy: 

There was once a poor old soldier whose story 
illustrates the above stanza and the one that fol- 
lows. This old soldier had been wounded, had 
grown feeble; yet, in his old age, nursed other sol- 
diers who were in hospital. There was a rich man 
whose soldier son, Charlie, the old soldier had 
nursed. One day the old soldier, on his way 
home, came into a rich man’s compound beg- 
ging, but could get no help. He pleaded his own 
merits, saying that he had been a soldier, and 
showed his wounds: but the old man called him a 
“beggar” and ordered him to go away. Then the 
old soldier thought of showing a letter Charlie had 
given him, to see if that would help. So he handed 
it to the rich man. Though the soldier knew it not, 
the rich man was Charlie’s father. The father with 
uncontrollable emotion saw Charlie’s hand-writing, 
and read, 


A PERSONAL TESTIMONY 93 


Dear father: 


This poor ‘old soldier nursed me when I was 
wounded, and did much for me. Will you help him 
for Charlie’s sake? 


When the father came to “for Charlie’s sake,” he 
ran, caught the old man in his arms, kissed him, 
took him into his home, gave him Charlie’s bedroom 
and Charlie’s place at the table. 

Instead of “for Charlie’s sake,” I used to pray 
“for Jesus’ sake.” This greatly helped me to under- 
stand and apply to myself the following stanza: 

“The Father hears him pray, 
His dear Anointed One; 
He cannot turn away 
The presence of his Son; 


His Spirit answers to the blood, 
And tells me I am born of God.” 


Notwithstanding all this, I was “slow of heart to 
believe.” The question would often arise: Do you 
know, are you sure you have ever been born from 
above? Then there would be doubts. But one day, 
while I was looking by faith toward the cross, there 
seemed to float out before me in the air, in illumi- 
nated letters, the very core of the gospel of Jesus, 
and in his own words, in answer to the question of 
Nicodemus concerning being “born from above.” 
“How can these things be?” 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only 


begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
should not perish, but have eternal life. 


I clearly saw that I was included in the “who- 
soever” and ceased to doubt. 


94 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Suddenly and gloriously God’s Spirit came down 
from above and entered into my spirit, and bore 
witness with my spirit that I was a child of God— 
an heir and a “joint heir with Jesus Christ.” Then 
suddenly I received a joy, greater, fuller, richer, and 
more satisfying than I can express in words. I 
could sing the hymn from that time on as a precious 
personal experience, as all mine, clear through to 
the very end: 


“My God is reconciled ; 
His pardoning voice I[ hear; 
He owns me for his child, 
I can no longer fear: 
With confidence I now draw nigh, 
And, ‘Father, Abba, Father,’ cry.” 


I was under seventeen years of age when I first 
received that joyous experience. I am over seventy 
now, and have never doubted since. It becomes more 
and more precious with advancing years. To any 
sin-burdened heart, my heart in love would say: 


“Oh that my Jesus 
Were your Jesus too!” 


Wipe the Blood From His Brow 

The story is told of an artist who painted a won- 
_derful picture of Jesus. A college president, a great 
lover of art, went to see the picture and took with 
him his little daughter. The artist had painted 
Christ with the crown of thorns on his head and 
wearing the scarlet robe of mockery. He had also 
painted a cruel Roman soldier standing at a dis- 
tance, and who, with the end of an outstretched 


A PERSONAL TESTIMONY 95 


pole, was pressing the crown of thorns down into 
the holy brow of the Lord Jesus. The father was 
so completely absorbed in admiring the perfection 
of every detail in the picture that, for a time, he 
wholly forgot his little daughter. When he turned 
and looked to see how it had impressed her, he saw 
the tears rolling down ker face while she was hold- 
ing up to her father in her little right hand her 
pocket handkerchief and saying: 

“Papa, papa, take this and wipe the blood from 
his brow.” 

Dear reader, you must either go through life like 
the soldier in the picture, pressing the thorns deeper 
into the bleeding brow of the sinless Jesus, or, like 
the little girl, wiping the blood from his holy brow. 
Which will you do? Ask yourself when you are 
alone with Jesus. 


Shall I Fail Him? 


“Christ has no hands but our hands to do his work 
to-day ; 
He has no feet but our feet to lead man in his way; 
He has no tongues but our tongues to tell men how 
he died ; 
He has no help but our help to bring them to his 
side. 


“What if our hands are busy with other work than 

his? 

What if our feet are walking where sin’s allure- 
ment is? 

What if our tongues are speaking of things his lips 
would spurn? 

How can we hope to help him and hasten his 
return?” 


96 THE SINLESS INCARNATION 


Shall you not, rather, reverently kneel down and 
make a personal covenant with Jesus Christ, saying: 


“Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small; 
Love, so amazing, so divine, 
Demands my soul, my life, my all’? 


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